Silhouette
by Faeyrinne
Summary: This is the story of Daisuke Niwa from shortly after his first time becoming the Phantom Thief Dark, and the events thereafter... WARNINGS: Yaoi, slight noncon, language, violence, DarkxDaisuke, SatoshixDaisuke
1. Daylight

Whewt, so I launched myself into another fanfic. Best way to get better at writing is to keep writing, I suppose.

Here it comes!

DISCLAIMER: IF YOU ARE UNDER AGE THIRTEEN, or dislike/ have a problem with male / male relationships, do NOT read this fanfiction. This is your warning, and you have been warned, and will not be warned again. I don't own any of the characters relating to or pertaining to DNAngel or its affiliates. Obviously. And if you want to sue me then you are:

1. Under age 12

2. Very, very stupid

3. Yukiru Sugasaki (in which case, I don't blame you.)

* * *

It was the middle of the night, and the world was sleeping. Save for Daisuke Niwa. He had a lot of trouble sleeping, most nights nowadays. Ever since he'd found out that his body contained a certain kind of DNA—a different strain—that would allow the infamous phantom thief Dark Mousy to be housed in his body, his life had been one escapade after another. By now he was used to going without much sleep.

He wished he hadn't been born into this damn family.

But he didn't have a choice. What was done was done, right? He sat on the edge of his bed, knees draped off the side, back arched slightly as he hunched over a picture of his one love.

Riku Harada. Ah, Riku Harada, the other Harada twin. It was just her yearbook picture, clipped out and an inch or so large, but her perfect face, wry, teasing grin and cropped red locks stood out more than anyone else in the book.

She didn't love him, though.

Too bad. He searched his mind for the answers, wondering what she didn't see in him. What she didn't see in _any _guys, for that matter—Riku was a loner, plain and simple, in the romance department. Maybe she sensed there was something wrong with Daisuke, something horribly askew, just beneath the surface.

Because that's what he was. A freak. A… well, he didn't know what else to call himself.

A voice interrupted his thoughts, breezing in from the very back of his head. It was not a voice that would have been heard in the real world; no, it was contained only in his mind.

_Still looking at that picture?_

"Yeah," Daisuke said, jaw clenching.

_Do you love her?_

"It doesn't matter to you," Daisuke replied angrily, keeping his voice soft. He didn't want to wake his mother or grandfather, though there was little chance of that. They slept downstairs on the first floor, separated by a few thick walls and a couple doors, not to mention a staircase. Didn't matter how loud he talked, but he liked to be quiet, just in case.

Just in case they found out he couldn't sleep. He didn't want to worry his mother.

_More than me?_

Daisuke stopped his idle turning of the picture in his hand. "Um…I…"

There was a faint laugh. _You're too easy to read._

"I wish you'd just go away," Daisuke said, and set the picture in his nightstand drawer, then lay back on his bed, curling up on the side that was facing his bedroom window. That cursed window. He'd been looking out that window the first time Dark had transformed into him (against his will, of course). That day had changed everything.

_Why? Don't you like doing what we do? _

"Stealing is a crime."

_I'm a thief, after all._

"That's not an excuse! Why're you bothering me anyways?"

Dark shifted inside him. _You're in love with Riku. That bothers me._

Daisuke rolled flat onto his back, crossing his arms behind his head and staring at the blank ceiling. What with all the staring he'd been doing lately at the ceiling, he considered getting it painted, or even doing the painting himself. Not that he was any good at painting. It just made him happy.

_You're an awful painter though._

"Aw, shut up." Daisuke closed his eyes, an irritated look crossing his features for just a moment. "I've got school tomorrow."

_Mm._

Daisuke clenched his eyes even tighter, lifting his back off the bed so he could flip the covers under his feet and back over again. He was too lazy to actually get up off the bed and turn them down properly. Besides, it was nearly midnight, and he had to get up for the train ride at six thirty.

But he was used to going without much sleep.


	2. The Golden Afternoon

It had been two months since his first time transforming. He pondered this as he came down to the breakfast table, yawning and stretching with both arms above his head. He was dressed in his uniform, thrown on haphazardly, and one of his shoes was unlaced, as well as his tie being crooked. He was lazy in the mornings.

"You look adorable, Dai." Daisuke looked up surprisedly to see his mother near the fridge, one hand on top of the coffee machine. "Tie's crooked, though. In a hurry?"

"I'm just tired. Sorry, I'll fix it. Morning, mom!" Daisuke fixed his tie distractedly and whisked an orange from the fruit bowl on the center of the table. He wasn't too hungry anyways. He ate the citrus in complete silence, contemplating his own thoughts and revealing nothing to the woman who took a seat beside him.

"So. I'm leaving another note tomorrow night."

He groaned. "Mo-om. Do I _have _to?"

"Dai, sweetie, you're a phantom thief now! This is just what you are. I'm so proud of you!" she grinned, cocked her head to the side, and planted a motherly kiss on his cheek. "You know your grandfather would say just the same thing."

"And dad?"

"Oh, I don't know where your father's gone off to today. Who knows? He might even be going around the world!" she said this so cheerfully, as if the absence of her husband for years and years and years wasn't anything to be worried about. But Kosuke could take care of himself, Daisuke supposed.

"Come to think of it, do you still have that ring he gave you a month ago?" she prompted.

"The…?" He looked down at his hand, somewhat sheepish. "N-no. It broke." He was suddenly lost in memory for a moment.

_"Daisuke, you can't fade away like this." It was Dark's voice that reached him as he was curled up into a ball, somewhere in the back of his mind. He didn't want to come out. Not ever. If he stayed like this forever, maybe he could just forget about being rejected by Risa, and not have to think about anything that _required _thinking. _

_"Yes, I can. Go away." _

_He was surprised to feel a hand on his shoulder, as physical as if it had happened in real life, and then Dark knelt next to him, put his face very close. "I came to take you back." His amethyst eyes were very serious and very dark, glimmering in the faint light._

_"I gave Riku the St. White's Day ribbon!" he looked up, and there were tears in his eyes. "And I'm supposed to be… I mean, Risa… I love Risa, I do! And I don't want to share a body with you anymore! I hate this…"_

_"Doesn't matter. You can't stay here." Dark grinned, that irresistible crooked smile that had all of the world in love with him. He was a legacy. He was sexy. He was a walking god._

_He wasn't Daisuke._

_"Now come on. I don't have all day." Dark reached down and plucked Daisuke off the ground, wrapping him in an embrace, shifting so he was bearing his full weight. And suddenly Daisuke felt like he was dissolving, like he was becoming part of someone else. It was a very new feeling, even in those times. _

_"Don't fight me, Dai," Dark whispered, lips pressed to Daisuke's ear. And Daisuke, for once in his life, relinquished his consciousness to the thief._

_He'd awoken in the school sick-bay, with Riku Harada next to him, eyes red from crying. _

"Too bad. If you and Dark get separated again, it could mean problems. I'll talk to your father about getting another one, 'kay?" she winked.

"I… okay, mom," he said, rubbing the back of his head as he grabbed his school things and made for the train station, feeling as if today might be one of those days where he wasn't sure what the hell he was doing anymore. Where things went out of control, and he had to work to get life to seem remotely normal.

* * *

He looked into his desk in disbelief. Not a single pencil left. What was he going to do now? The teacher walked up to the whiteboard and began sketching out a few problems for the class: basic algebra, nothing too hard. Radicals and some basic geometry. To his left was Aika, and then Riku just in front of him. He didn't dare ask Riku for a spare, and he didn't even know Aika. That left Takeshi behind him, who was asleep at his desk, and Satoshi on his right. Takeshi _never _had pencils on him.

But he couldn't ask Satoshi. The guy scared him shitless. He craned around and chucked a ball of crunched-up paper at Takeshi's mouth, where drool was beginning to form. The ball went in—he had perfect aim—and Takeshi sputtered and snorted, gagged, then sat up straight.

"Takeshi, something wrong?" The teacher asked, turning around irritatedly.

"No, sensei." He saluted military-style, then shot Daisuke a distinctive look. "What?" he mouthed, without saying anything.

"Pencil?" Daisuke mouthed back. Takeshi turned both his pockets inside out with a shrug and shook his head no. He didn't have a pencil. As usual.

Well, shit.

He leaned both elbows on his desk and sighed, but his peripheral vision caught something: a flash of silver. Satoshi was staring at him with complete and open frankness. Well, actually, he did that most days; he just stared at Daisuke the entire class. Without any trace of embarrassment in those cold eyes. Just stared. Actually, he'd gotten used to being stared at after the first few days, and he didn't much notice anymore, though when he _did _notice it was with much chagrin. Daisuke's eyes slid to the side and he turned his head again: "Er… ah… Satoshi… do you have a pencil I could… borrow?"

He extended his arm immediately. There was a pencil, held out demurely between forefinger and thumb. As if he'd been waiting for Daisuke to ask. Daisuke blinked twice, paused, then took the pencil quickly with a glance at the board and copied down the problems. Satoshi, he saw, wasn't even writing anything down, though he had the best of everything in his desk. He didn't even have a notebook open.

"And then, class, we find the square root of two-hundred and fifty nine. Satoshi?" she called on him for the answer, and he was startled out of his staring-at-Daisuke reverie suddenly. He didn't so much as blink before answering: "Sixteen point oh nine to the nearest hundredth."

"Good, good." He hadn't even used a calculator.

Daisuke had been seeing more of Satoshi than he'd have liked lately.

It wasn't just the fact that Satoshi was a tamer, too—his body housed Krad, the other half of Dark's soul. It was more that whenever he was around him, he felt confused, and inflamed, and somehow incredibly aware of his own awkwardness.

Odd thing was, it wasn't such a different feeling as when he was near Riku.

That's what bothered him.

Not to mention he kept popping up in unexpected places, at just _conveniently _the right time. Like once when Daisuke'd fallen down the stairs. Satoshi had caught him. And then when Daisuke had fainted that one time… Satoshi'd carried him to the sick bay. And then when he'd been out as Dark the first time, Satoshi had been there, trying to capture him as always, with that steely glint in his eyes that was so rare. Satoshi had gone through a lot of effort to see him. He'd dressed up like a girl once, even. It was thoroughly awkward, because he _knew… _somehow he _knew _that Satoshi had some kind of weird feelings for him. He was only fourteen, but he recognized the signs.

"Niwa!" Takeshi yelled as they exited the classroom for the end of the day. "Hey, your turn to stay and clean today, idiot!"

"Whuh?" Daisuke relied intelligibly. He'd been daydreaming about Riku again. Riku in a bikini, with a towel rolled up under her arm, and lip gloss all over those perfectly arched lips, her eyes bright, smile tugging at her mouth. 'Come on, Dai, don't you want to go in the water?' She'd been asking.

"You. Clean. Today. Hello?" Takeshi waved a hand in front of his face. "You're such an oddball sometimes. Daydreaming about Riku Harada again, aren't you?"

"Shh!" Daisuke said, brow furrowing. "Don't say it too loud—"

"RIKUUUU! HARAAAAADA!" Takeshi screamed in a sing-song voice. Several kids turned their heads, but nobody took much notice of Takeshi, because he was an idiot and he did that kind of thing quite often. Suddenly a short crop of red hair popped out from behind a colonnade. "Someone call me?" Riku asked, and both of them stopped dead.

"Oh, yeah. You've got cleaning duty too," Takeshi said brazenly.

"Gah, I hate cleaning," Riku said, eyes falling to half-mast, and she stepped up to Daisuke. "Well, are you coming or not? It's your day, isn't it?"

Daisuke almost cringed away from her. "I-I-I… uh, yes, I mean, yes. It is." Why was Dark so smooth with this kind of thing, and he wasn't? he felt like a complete moron trying to talk to her. She was just a girl. Just a girl, right?

They walked back into the classroom and Daisuke dropped his books on a nearby seat, grabbing up a rag from the teachers' supply cabinet. "Isn't Satoshi on duty today, too?" Riku asked as she handled a mop. "He always skips out."

"Uhn, I'm not sure," Daisuke responded lamely.

Just then the door creaked again and Satoshi himself walked in, a commanding presence at almost three inches taller than Daisuke, and more than that over Riku. He perched on a desk, looking casual.

"Ooh, he showed!" Riku said. "Well, wipe down the board, then. I don't have all day. I've got lacrosse practice in twenty minutes!"

Satoshi simply nodded and did as he was told, though he positively emanated a vibe that _he was in charge _and that he was just obliging to be nice. Not that he was nice very often. Daisuke found himself studying the easy way he moved, wondering if someday he could manage that. Maybe he could be like that one day. Right now he was just… eh. Not Satoshi, and not Dark, and definitely not his father. So who was he?

Riku suddenly looked up. "Daisuke…?"

"Yeah?" he looked up from his wiping of the window-sills to find her very, very close to him. All of his daytime fantasies suddenly sprung into his head and he worked very hard not to let them color his face. She smiled: "I kept that recording that Keiji Saga gave me."

Oh, shit. The one where he'd said _I love you, Riku. _She still had it?

Daisuke gulped, and suddenly found strength. "I… Riku, I wanted to say…"

Suddenly she jerked and broke for the door at a sprint. "Oh, my God! I'm ten minutes late already! Sorry, Daisuke, I'll talk to you later!" she shot him an apologetic glance and was gone, a scuff on the floor the only sign of her departure. And now Satoshi was looking at him oddly, with his head tilted just the tiniest fraction, his eyes meditative and questioning as he stood poised with one eraser in his hand.

"Damnit," Daisuke swore, and sank down into a chair.

There was silence.

"You love her?"

Daisuke looked up at Satoshi, surprised. "Um… well, I don't love her. But I like her, sure."

Satoshi made something of this, but he couldn't tell what it was. "Are you going out tonight?" he asked suddenly, his voice as cold and emotionless as always. Daisuke drew his knees up onto the chair and pressed his mouth together. By _going out _Satoshi, of course, meant to ask if Dark was stealing anything tonight. Though he already knew the answer, and it didn't matter what Daisuke said. Satoshi was always well informed. He was head of the police squad, for that matter.

"No. I don't think so.."

Satoshi lifted his eyes a little. "You shouldn't tell me that."

"Why not?" now he was baffled a little.

"I might use it against you. You'll be at home tonight, then."

Daisuke opened his mouth, closed it again, opened it. Both times words failed him. "Sorry," he finished lamely.

"Don't apologize," Satoshi returned. "It's not a matter of what you tell me. It just makes me so… angry… " he moved to the desk where Daisuke was, and Daisuke shrugged back into the chair, suddenly a little afraid of the look in Satoshi's eyes.

But all he did was put a hand on Daisuke's shoulder. "As easy as this, I could capture you. Just… whisk you away, and nobody would know." The contact was firm, unyielding, but not painful.

"But you aren't, are you?" Daisuke asked warily. He didn't want to fight Satoshi. Dark was asleep inside of him, watching quietly, ready to force Daisuke to transform if he thought it was necessary. But it wasn't, apparently, because Satoshi gave him a helpless look and turned back to the board. He slammed his eraser onto its ledge and then stormed out, not even bringing any school supplies with him. He never needed school supplies anyways.

* * *

_That was interesting, _Dark said when Daisuke was back at home, opening the front door and feeling quite bewildered at the day's events. Daisuke shrugged him off and greeted his mom and grandpa before setting foot on the stairs and shutting the door of his room behind him, retreating to his desk.

"I have homework to do," he said brusquely, because he knew what would happen next if he wasn't careful. He had to be careful around Dark, all the time. In just two short months he'd learned that much. "I'm tired."

There was a sudden lessening of his mind and a flicker of light behind him. Dark, in his physical form, was standing just behind Daisuke. Daisuke knew he was just an illusion, knew that Dark was still inside his mind and body and wasn't _really _there, and that nobody but he could see him when he was like this, but it still struck a note of presence on his mind.

Dark twined his arms around Daisuke's shoulders as he leaned over the chair, breathing in the scent of his hair.

"You smell good, Dai."

"I probably smell _horrible. _I've been cleaning."

"Not at all." He smiled against the back of Daisuke's head, and Daisuke felt it, the pencil in his hand surprisingly idle. Satoshi's pencil—shit, he'd forgotten to return it.

Dark and he… well, what had begun as a partnership had become something much, much different over the course of two months. It wasn't just that Dark was pushy, or that he was a romantic at heart; it was that they both knew each other's thoughts so thoroughly that it almost seemed natural. The first time Dark had fucked him, it had been not at all what a first time should be, and he hadn't even known what was going on, mostly. It'd been painful, too. He wasn't the most clued-in guy about sex. And was it his fault? He lived in a house with his mom and his senile grandpa, for God's sake. Where was he supposed to learn this kind of thing?

He sometimes didn't know if Dark did it because he loved Daisuke, or if he was angry over being stuck in someone else's body and this was a personal form of revenge. It didn't matter why it happened so much as that it just happened, and was a part of life.

And the thing was, neither of them talked about it except when it was happening, when it was real. Dark pressed a kiss to the nape of Daisuke's neck, and he shivered up and down his spine. Not from pleasure. Not from happiness. He didn't like Dark in that way. Dark knew this, but he didn't let up. Daisuke tried to concentrate on his geography homework, studiously tracing the edge of one word with his pencil.

Hands moved over his shoulders to his school-tie, slipping it off casually.

Daisuke narrowed his eyes at the paper, ignored his body's reaction to the touch, and pushed all feelings out of his mind. This was much harder than it seemed. _The equator runs straight through the Congo Basin, doesn't it?And…_

Dark pressed his lips to Daisuke's cheekbone, just under one eye, and Daisuke allowed it, but didn't say anything in reply. _Is Libya different from Liberia?—oh, shit._

In all actuality, the phantom thief was only three years older than Daisuke, so how was it possible that he was so experienced? Well, he'd been trapped in a seventeen-year-old body for three hundred years, so maybe that made a difference. He finally found Daisuke's mouth with his lips, and Daisuke's pencil dropped from his hand onto the page, rolling until it hit the crease in the center of the geography book. He couldn't see anything but Dark's face, close, real, warm. He didn't respond, though.

"Come on, Dai. What's the matter?" Dark urged, his mouth slipping off for a moment. His voice was little more than a whisper.

He didn't reply. Whatever Daisuke Niwa was thinking, it was indiscernible at the moment, even to someone who shared the same mind.


	3. Inbetween Light and Dark

"Daisuke, he's freakin' me out. He hasn't even said a word." A boy nudged his shoulder.

"Uh. Try hitting him or something," Another classmate suggested. Daisuke's eyes slid to where Takeshi was sitting dazedly in his seat, staring straight ahead. Satoshi was gone today, so Daisuke was preparing himself for a day of staring at the back of Riku's head without interruption. He couldn't be bothered with what Takeshi was doing right now.

"No, we tried," the other kid returned. Daisuke blinked and turned his neck around to see that indeed, Takeshi had a completely vacant look on his face, a goofy smile planted there.

"Hey, Takeshi," Daisuke called at him. "You there?"

"…Ye-ah," Takeshi replied, leaning back to look at the ceiling dreamily. The teacher interrupted their one-way conversation by thrusting a paper into Daisuke's hand quite suddenly. Daisuke turned again and looked up at her: "'Scuse me, sensei, what's this?"

"I received a call from Satoshi," the teacher replied. "He's out sick. Since you and he are such great friends, will you take this to his house for me?"

Geh. Satoshi's house? Daisuke knew where it was, but he sure as hell didn't want to go there. Not now, not ever. He opened his mouth to say something to the teacher along the lines of _sorry, I don't even know him that well and he's just a creepy stalkerish guy anyways, please don't make me go to his house _when he felt the back of his collar lifted and he rose about an inch out of his seat.

"Sure thing, sensei!" Takeshi beamed in a bright voice, obviously done with the dreaming. "C'mon, Dai, buddy. We're going."

Once they were safely outside Daisuke hissed a whisper at him: "Why're we doing this?"

"Aren't you the least bit excited to know where he lives?" Takeshi said, delighted by the prospect. Daisuke shook his head violently. "No, I am _not."_

_Whoo, this is too much fun to resist, _came Dark's voice, who was now awake.

Oh, damn. Why did he always have to watch Daisuke's most embarrassing moments? It wasn't enough that he never got a moment of peace to himself, even in his dreams. Because Dark could enter those too, if he wanted. Even the wet ones.

"Well, you know the way, and she already gave you the paper. So let's go."

Daisuke finally relented after a long argument and led off in the right direction, huffing with annoyance.

* * *

Twenty minutes later they were there: a modest apartment, completely average in every way. "Is this where he lives? Jeez, I'dve thought something bigger… yanno, 'cause I see him riding around in that limo sometimes and I always thought he was rich," Takeshi said, yawning.

"Dunno. Don't think that's his style," Daisuke said, and rung the bell.

They waited.

"Wonder if his family lives here too?" Takeshi ventured, and the door clicked open suddenly. Satoshi looked out, his glasses just perched on the edge of his nose, wearing a white silk shirt that was lazily buttoned only on the first button, and designer jeans that looked as if they'd cost more than a car. He looked like a male model that had just happened to fall straight out of bed.

"Takeshi?" He said. He didn't look sick at all. Not even close. He just looked the same way he always did, with impeccable ivory skin, even if he was on the borderline of pale. And then he opened the door wider, and his eyebrows lifted. "And Daisuke. Come in, I guess."

"No, no, it's okay, here, this is just your homework," Daisuke said, and stuck out the folder awkwardly. He wanted to do no such thing.

"You've come all the way here. You might as well," Satoshi suggested as he plucked the folder neatly from Daisuke's hand, and then looked up at Takeshi with cool evenness. Takeshi stared at Daisuke. "Come on, you big pansy. Pleeeeeease?" he begged.

Daisuke's brow creased. "Uh, okay," he said

Takeshi pushed past the door with a cackle and whoop, then ran inside.

Satoshi looked at him with only mild confusion, then back to Daisuke. "Is he… mentally ill?"

"No, I think he wants to cook for you." He'd been friends with Takeshi long enough to know that the guy had a good heart, even if he was a little bold most of the time. Well, all of the time. Satoshi motioned and Daisuke stepped uncomfortably into the apartment. The door clicked behind him, and Satoshi drew the lock. And then another.

"Guess you're locked in now," he said in an ominously unreadable tone.

Daisuke shivered.

"Too bad. And no wings to fly away, either."

_I hate this kid, _Dark said. _Change the subject._

He gave a small gulp. "Are… you sick, then?" he forced out, trying to distract Satoshi from the conversation at hand. Satoshi looked startled, or as startled as he ever looked, which was not at all. "No, I wasn't," he replied. "But don't tell Takeshi. Saves me the trouble of cooking."

The next ten minutes consisted of Daisuke sitting on the couch across from Satoshi, with Satoshi looking completely unruffled in the slightest. He never did. He was always cool and casual, always completely apathetic.

After what seemed like a decade, Takeshi waltzed in with plates of god-knew-what. He was a fantastic chef, because he had to cook for himself in his father's constant absence. Daisuke knew, because he'd seen for himself, and was all too eager to sit down at the table. Takeshi settled down next to Daisuke, and Satoshi across from them both, and then Takeshi fiddled into his pocket and produced a package.

"So what do you think of this?" He said, and Satoshi fingered the flap, opened it, and pulled out a photograph. It was of a young girl, no older than Daisuke himself, and she was very, very beautiful. Her face was sad, her eyes looking as if she was haunted by the ghosts of her past each moment she lived.

"She looks foreign," Satoshi replied in the flat voice he used with everyone except Daisuke.

"Well, duh. But I mean…" Takeshi blushed—_blushed—_and went on. "I took it myself last night. I was looking around that museum, the one where the Agate Links is, and I saw her there, and I took that. Do you know who she is?"

"No, I don't," Satoshi replied.

_He's lying, _Dark said. _I know her, and so does he, little bastard. That's Menou._

Daisuke couldn't say anything back, lest he appear like he was talking to himself. So he merely gave a shrug and shook his head as well. "Never seen her."

"Well, damn. I'm going there tonight, you'll see," Takeshi said, suddenly afire, and began to eat. So did Daisuke and Satoshi. It was actually pretty good- curry with rice, not too spicy, and cooked to perfection. "Hey, this isn't bad," Daisuke remarked.

"Better be good. That's Takeshi Saehara Curry." Daisuke didn't pay attention to the rest of Takeshi's babblings, because he was busy watching Satoshi watch him. There was an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach that somehow there was something more to this meeting than just Satoshi being ill. He'd said himself he wasn't.

Satoshi ate like a normal guy. Which was surprising, but not too surprising. This act of complete humanness on someone so alien was odd, and struck Daisuke as almost funny.

_What'd you expect? That he had an inverted stomach like a starfish, or fed through his pores, or something? _Dark had a good laugh at that. He laughed at his own jokes a lot. It was annoying, sometimes.

"Well, get off to the living room, I'm gonna clean," Satoshi finished, not having at all noticed the silent battle between the other two boys. He whisked away the other plates: "But m'warning you, I'm slow at cleaning. Hate this part." He winked and disappeared, leaving Satoshi and Daisuke utterly alone.

"He's in love. Seems easy," Satoshi remarked then. Daisuke eased himself off the dining chair and back into the meager living room, noting that Satoshi did not seem to have any kind of family. All the possessions were easily recognized as his. Most were unused: a chair that hadn't a speck of dust on it, a plasma TV collecting a film on the screen with the packing sticker still on the cord, a lamp that wasn't plugged in. Satoshi, to his mute horror, followed him, and sat just next to him on the couch.

"Yeah, well," Daisuke replied in a low voice.

"Still seeing Harada?"

"Yes." If what they had could be considered dating. It was more like friendship than an actual relationship so far.

"But you don't love her."

This caught Daisuke completely and totally off guard. "No, I guess not. I mean, sure, I like her a lot, and she's nice and all… Don't know if I _love _her…" he was talking on and on, and he couldn't stop his mouth moving. But somewhere deep in his heart he had a silent fear that Satoshi would do something awful to Riku. One of these days.

"Then who do you love?"

He froze.

Dark stirred inside of him, like a cat stretching out a paw lazily. _Oh, he's good._

"Not your other half, surely?" the question was like a grip on his heart. Satoshi leaned closer and casually curled his fingers around Daisuke's schooltie, applying just enough pressure so their heads leaned together as if they were sharing a secret. "That's dangerous," he said quietly.

"How would you know that?" Daisuke said, trying to keep a laughing tone in his voice, as if he just thought Satoshi was making a great joke. "Besides," he continued, "I mean, Dark's a part of me, so that wouldn't work, and you know it wouldn't…"

"I wonder… if he's a part of you, could I get him to show himself?" Satoshi said smoothly, and his free hand landed itself on Daisuke's knee. He was now leaning over Daisuke in a manner that was incredibly… well, awkward for Daisuke. He felt his cheeks flame bright red, up to the very roots of his hair. He liked _Riku. _He liked _Riku. I like Riku, and I like Riku, and I like Riku, and I like…_

"Ah… Satoshi, Listen! I…" he leaned back into the couch, away from that electric touch, though their eyes remained locked. Satoshi was creating a feeling in him that was very, very unusual. He didn't even have a name for it. He'd never felt anything like it before.

"If your body reacts to external stimulation, such as a photograph of Harada," he said in the same tone he would have used to describe the weather, or a science project, "I wonder if it reacts to other kinds of romantic stimulation as well…?"

"Satoshi, I don't wanna change right now… please, please just let me go," he half-begged. The sound of water in the other room was audible: Takeshi was still cleaning, and over the noise of the faucet he couldn't hear anything that was going on in the living room. What was taking him so damn long?

Satoshi paused, and then withdrew. Was it just Daisuke's imagination, or did his eyes flicker gold and yellow for a moment?

"Forgive me," he said in an entirely different tone of voice, and bowed his head slightly.

_For what, _Daisuke wondered, but didn't say anything. He leapt up from the couch, grabbed Takeshi, who was done, and left.

* * *

Daisuke sat back and watched through Dark's eyes as the thief skirted the tops of one rooftop, then the next. "Happy to watch, Dai?" he said out loud with a grin as he hopped over a chimney, then ran down the next slant of roof, towards the museum.

_I'm tired. I don't want to have to deal with Satoshi, anyways._

"Think he'll be here?"

_He's always here. _

"Well, that's his job, I guess." Dark sighed, swung into a bedroom through an open window and leapt out the other side without waking a single occupant. Finally it was time: He reached behind him, into the pack that Daisuke's mother always insisted he carry, and brought a tiny, shaking white creature out of the bag. It looked like a cross between a rabbit and a mouse, with enormous red eyes. "Wiz, time to go," Dark whispered.

Seconds later they were flying.

"You haven't even kissed Riku yet, have you?" Dark loved to tease Daisuke about his lack of relationship with Riku, but right now Daisuke was just _not _in the mood.

_Shut up. _

"Aw, too bad, kid. Looks like I'm still the only one."

_…Shut… up. _Daisuke mentally cringed inside Dark's mind. As much as he hated to admit it, it was true. He'd only ever been touched in that way by his other half, which was sometimes an embarrassment and sometimes an enlightment.

Inside, Dark found a rogue spirit. Menou. The girl from the photograph. She was sitting on the display case, hands folded demurely as they entered.

"Weeeeell, if it isn't Menou," Dark said with a smile.

"Who… are… you…?" she asked, her eyes blank and foggy.

"I've come to take the Agate Links," Dark replied.

"Please," she said, her voice softening, wavering; "Can I have one more day? I'm waiting for him, and he hasn't come, and I don't even know if he will. But I want to see him if I can. Just one more day."

Dark seemed to consider, and Daisuke saw fragments of several thoughts running through his mind. While Dark had had 300 years to perfect his memory and mind reading skills, Daisuke had had only two months. He wasn't very good at it. Dark finally stepped forward, bowed, and pressed her hand to his lips.

"I accept the lovely lady's deal," he said, grinned one of those charming smiles, and turned around, departing through the night on Wiz's wings. They met no sign of Satoshi, which was half enlightening and half disappointing—it was no fun without providing some kind of challenge to Dark. And this time, Dark made sure the news cameras caught him fully on tape, leaving the place.

He didn't want them to think he'd stolen it or anything.


	4. Bittersweet Twilight

Blegh, I retyped this thrice because I'm trying to keep it as canon as possible. I'm happy with this chapter, finally.

Comments? Criticism? Send 'em my way, kiddos.

Anyone willing to beta read me? Hn, I really should get one of those.

* * *

"I wonder why he didn't show up?" Daisuke mused to himself, back in his bedroom. His light was the only one on in the house. The world was sleeping but for two people: himself, and Dark Mousy. But maybe that only counted as one person.

They had gone to the museum directly at five, which was when the note for the previous night had said Dark would be there. There'd been even more guards the second night, but as usual Dark had had no trouble getting in, and getting the Agate Links. Though Takeshi had made a brave effort against him. Takeshi had actually gotten the Links out of Menou's hands before managing to fall off the roof. Daisuke had felt a bit bad leaving him there, but really, he'd only fallen on bushes and he wasn't hurt, and it was better that the police find him and take him to his father.

But Satoshi hadn't shown up the entire night.

"He knew he didn't have a chance. He's finally given up," Dark said, and slid into a chair. The lamp illuminated only half his face, giving him an exotic, mysterious look. The tiniest edge of a smile teased his lips.

"He has not. I know Satoshi. He won't give up that easily," Daisuke replied. He was against the wall opposite the bed, knees hugged to his chest, eyes focused solely on the floor and the whorls in the carpet. Dark turned his head and glanced at him in a way that made Daisuke just grab his knees tighter.  
"I was making a joke. You and him've been getting quite friendly lately," Dark said. "He's a Hikari. Don't you think that's a little bit like… fraternizing with the enemy?"

"No," Daisuke said angrily. "He's a bit odd. But he's sort of my friend, too. I mean, well…" he shrugged. "I don't want to kill him." He looked at his feet lamely.

"He's clearly obsessed with you," Dark replied.

"No, just you," Daisuke retorted. He bit back the second part of that remark, lest he incite Dark's anger—Dark could be extremely volatile when angry.

"Well, who wouldn't be?" Dark struck a pose from his seated position, practically oozing ego. Daisuke merely rolled his eyes and tucked his chin into his kneecap.  
"What, not interested? You and I both know better." Dark grinned and looked out the window. Daisuke watched him warily from his position against the wall.

Sometimes it was hard to realize that Dark wasn't actually there. That if anyone were to open the door, they'd only see Daisuke talking to empty air. Because really, Dark was in his mind; it was a sort of hallucination, though to Daisuke Dark was as real as anyone else. One of the highlights of being a Tamer, he supposed. Daisuke's cheeks flamed brightly.

He rose to get a book from his bookshelf, figuring he'd try and get some reading done. He'd had a remotely peaceful evening—no getting hunted, no police swarming the streets, no Riku or Risa to mess up his nerves.

And was remotely surprised to feel a hand around his waist. He looked down at the arm that he could see, feeling Dark's lithe form pressed against his back, and his heart beat wildly. It was true that he felt for Dark. Though this feeling was different from the one for Riku, or for Satoshi. He wanted Riku's body more than anything he'd ever wanted in his life. And around Satoshi he got an electric kind of feeling, a confusing muddling of his head, a strong feeling that overwhelmed him and which he couldn't name. And around Dark he was worshipful, adoring. Dark knew this. And he used it to his advantage.

He stiffened slightly. His hand paused on the shelf.

"Come on, Dai. Are you gonna pretend like you don't care about me the same way I do about you?"

Daisuke was silent for a while. "You don't."

"It's always clicked with my other Tamers. So why not you?"

He didn't want to imagine that Dark had been seducing his ancestors for centuries. He really, really, tried hard not to imagine it, but his mind wandered, and he let go of the book he was about to grab as Dark fingered the base of Daisuke's shirt.

"You're in love with Satoshi, aren't you?"

"No!" Daisuke was adamant. But there was nothing he could protest further. He was getting flustered. Dark grinned coyly just over his left shoulder.

"Good. For a second there, I was worried." Hands pulled at the bottom of his shirt, reaching to unfasten the buttons and slip it off his shoulders. He closed his eyes and focused on breathing deeply, evenly. He didn't like it when Dark touched him. He might have adored him, but he didn't want… agh, he was so confused. So damn confused all the time. Why was everything so hard to figure out?

He remembered his grandfather's words, the morning after his fourteenth birthday, and after his first time stealing and becoming Dark. His grandfather, Daiki, had sat him down in the parlor and bent his head close, eyes serious.

_"Daisuke. You must know that Dark is a romantic at heart. Your mother's told you about the legacy of the Phantom Thieves—that they fall in love with someone who causes them to switch forms. This is how their Tamer must control them. But in Dark's case… well…he's a sort of libertine, you understand; a rather different spirit. And he's always been jealous of those he possesses. He's jealous of our mortality, of our being human. He craves his Tamer's love, craves his adoration like a drug. Needs it to live."_

_"…Hunh? Grandpa, I don't get it," Daisuke had replied._

_"Nevermind, Daisuke. Just remember that." And he'd left._

Dark's breath was warm against his skin. Though how he had _warm _breath was uncertain, because he wasn't even really alive, technically. He was a hallucination. Part of Daisuke's spirit. Not real. Not real. Not real. He repeated this thought to himself.

"But I _am _real. As real as you."

"You aren't me, though."

"We are one and the same. Haven't you realized that yet?"

"That's not what Satoshi told me." He thought back to long ago. What was it Satoshi had called Dark? His other half. So Dark was really only half of him. He was relieved at that. Because deep down, in the farthest parts of his mind, he feared that Dark really would eclipse him someday and that he would be nothing more than a shadow. He feared being lost forever, or worse, forgotten. He feared it more than anything. Hands grasped his shoulders, brushed past the clasp on his belt and it slipped off because there were no locks that Dark could not break. And when had they gotten to the bed?

Well, this was one of _those _nights.

"Why won't you just give yourself over to me? You're the first Tamer who hated being me," Dark said softly from above him. "I'm not going to hurt you. You don't have to look so scared."

_Liar, _Daisuke thought to himself. _You're a liar and a thief._

"Aw, come on, Dai. Don't be like that." Dark's kiss tasted oddly like cinnamon and coffee, a sweet, comforting taste. Maybe he was manipulating that part too. He could change how he looked if he wanted to, or how he smelled or tasted. That was what he was doing now. Trying to put Daisuke at ease. _Well, it's not going to work. I never asked to be a phantom thief._

Moving down now. And the thrum of energy inside Daisuke was finely tuned, distinctly violin-like, a musical instrument playing to the static in the air around them. As Dark's hand curled over the rim of his waistband he flinched and struggled to push Dark off him, trying to stand on his own. Trying to leave the bed. "Leave me alone, Dark," he said evenly, each word spaced between clenched teeth.

Suddenly a hand shot out and enclosed Daisuke's wrist, pressed it to the pillow, held it there. How was he so damn _strong? _Daisuke twisted under his grasp, eyes wide. "Dark, no! Get off me!" He was suddenly sick of this. Sick of Dark trying to just persuade him to let go, to just give in and be a part of him for once and to let Dark do as he would. He was done with that. He never wanted to do that again.

"This is for your own good," Dark said, and there was a hint of steel in his tone, his eyes burning into Daisuke's gaze as if they themselves were fire. It was a thoroughly alien look on Dark. No humor, no amicability, no friendliness left in those eyes. Suddenly something snapped into place in Daisuke's head and realization came to him, making him arch his back, try and throw Dark off him. But it didn't work. Dark was not only taller, he was about ten pounds heavier.

Daisuke twisted his hips, trying to bend his knees and press upwards, but—"Don't fucking _fight, _Daisuke. You'll understand later."

"Dark, listen to me. I'm not just gonna…" Dark silenced him with a rough kiss and Daisuke was consumed with breathing and thinking and trying not to completely panic. As Dark broke the kiss, he sucked in a breath as if he were going to make some further protest but Dark pressed his free hand to Daisuke's mouth.

"You wanna wake up the others?"

Daisuke was very silent then. No matter what he did or didn't want, he _definitely_ didn't want to awaken his mother, and definitely not his grandfather. He wondered if, in his own circumventing way, his grandfather had been trying to warn him about Dark. Maybe he'd been wrong though.

He sighed, and when Dark moved in to kiss him again he didn't twist or protest this time. It was either this or reject his family legacy, and if he and Dark couldn't work together, his mother would die of grief. It was her life's dream to have a son as phantom thief Dark. It had always been. He had to do this, he realized, for her.

And now the pants were sliding down, off his hips. The first thrust was, as always, searingly painful, incredibly so, like an intruder that was unwelcome in his body. For the next few minutes as Dark lowered over him and pressed into him, there was only the sound of his own torn breathing, because Dark didn't make noise when he breathed. He closed his eyes and silently begged it to be over soon. The pain did not decrease. But he knew it wouldn't last long.

Around the second thrust or so he felt a twinge of electricity. Dark had hit up against something buried deep inside him and it sent a shiver of warmth throughout his body. He tried not to concentrate on the pleasure, to ignore it, to squash it down, but with every passing second it only grew more and more present until he let himself be carried over the threshold. And for a little while, for a few seconds, he was in bliss.

It was as if someone had taken a most brilliant and luminous light and pushed it in front of his eyes, and that was all he could see, white noise filling his ears and brain with emptiness. His mouth opened slightly, quivered, closed again after drawing a shaky breath. And Dark's form was still over him, still searching his eyes for some kind of answer, some kind of exoneration.

"I _love you, _Daisuke," he said, and it was sincere. "For fuck's sake, why can't you just honor the old traditions?"

_This is love? _Daisuke wondered to himself, the last ebbs and flows fading. _Is this what I'm supposed to feel for Riku, expected by my family to do for her? Is this really what love means?_

He shook all over. Every time Dark did this, he felt stale and empty. It meant nothing to him. Nothing at all. He was expected to bond with Dark; that was what his family expected of him, and he couldn't give it to them.

Was he a failure, then?

* * *

In the morning he realized Dark was asleep inside of him, and probably would be for most of the day. Slipping off the bed he hiked up his pajamas and tossed them into the clothing hamper—he hadn't used them, anyways—and stripped the sheets and comforter, pressing them into a bundle with the… used… parts on the inside. It was still the borderline between dawn and true daylight, and his mother wouldn't be up for thirty minutes. He dressed in complete silence.

He tossed them into the washing machine, loaded the solution, pressed the start button, and exhaled slowly as the spin cycle began and water flooded the chamber. He watched the motions: around and around…

He found himself sitting on the floor against the opposite wall, just watching the washer. Thinking. It was a kind of tranquility he didn't find often.

He was surprised to hear footsteps, though. A sort of shuffling slide: this wasn't his mother's steps. It was his grandfather. Daiki. He gave Daisuke a slow nod and then stepped over to where his grandson was, taking a seat next to him despite the state his legs were in. He was surprisingly nimble for a man his age. All ex-phantom thieves were.

"Sleep well, kid?"

Daisuke was sure he had pockets under his eyes. But of course he nodded.

"What are you washing?"

He turned his gaze to the machine, then back again. "Bedsheets. I… was painting on my bed… one of my paints got on them, bled through…"

He knew it sounded lame. He met his grandfather's eyes and knew that Daiki could tell exactly why he was in the laundry room and exactly why he was washing those sheets. But like a good person, he held his tongue, and merely said, "I see."

"I've gotta get to school early. Tomorrow's the big school trip and I haven't signed up for a group yet."

"Right," Daiki said, and put one hand against the doorframe as he paused in the doorway. "You do that. Take care, Daisuke. I'm here if you need me."

He felt awful. He couldn't tell his grandfather. Not about Dark, not about school or his friends, or about his lack of success with Riku. Somehow he didn't feel cut out for her in any way. Maybe they weren't so compatible. And he certainly couldn't tell him about his dream, because that was something that had shocked even him.

He'd dreamed about Satoshi.


	5. Dusk

_Hello, there._

_(Who are you…?)_

_It doesn't matter. _

The feeling of being watched…

_(What's this about?)_

_This? It's about **you** and** me**._

_(Huh?)_

_I have you now. I've **captured you.**_

"Hey, Daisuke!" Takeshi screamed from the corner. Daisuke jerked out of his dream, his head snapping up so violently that his neck cracked and he winced, sinking back down onto the desk. It was lunch. He'd slept through the first few classes of the day, and every time it had been the same dream. He didn't know the voice in the dream, but he always woke up when the last sentence was finished.

"Man, you look fuckin' _tired. _I got jipped by Dark, can you believe it?" he snarled, his hand curled into a fist. "Pushed me off the roof, but I fought him all the way down." And he went on to rave about the previous night. Daisuke switched off his ears after the first sentence.

He continued to rest his head on the wood, which was remotely cool, and thought of a reply. _Right, 'pushed'. That's the word for it. You didn't **run **off the roof, naturally._

"Wow, too bad," he said out loud, smiling with what he supposed was a sympathetic expression. Takeshi bought it: "Aw, I _know. _At least I got her name. Dunno if I'll see her again though. I got carted away when the police found me and my dad was already pretty pissed off at me."

"Oh."

"That's all you can say? Come on, lunchtime." He was dragged outside, groaning the entire way.

* * *

The early morning passed in a kind of blur of his teacher's words. Satoshi wasn't at school, but their teacher didn't give them any assignments to take over to him, oddly enough. Maybe he'd made some kind of formal excuse and had gotten clean out of doing homework. _How unfair_, Daisuke thought to himself as he worked through a particularly difficult set of radical problems. _He gets out of everything, and I've got to handle it all._

Speaking of which, Dark had been religiously sleeping all night and all morning. Maybe this was a good thing.

He looked up from his lunchbox to see Riku Harada approaching him intentfully. Definitely a good thing. He swallowed, a lump rising in his throat that wasn't from any food, and nervously raked a hand through his hair.

Takeshi was talking at him, and he wasn't responding. When he turned to see the reason, he laughed: "Oh, here comes the princess now. Don't screw up, dude."

As Riku stopped just in front of Daisuke, her skirt's hem touching his knees as he sat on the bench looking up at her, she folded her hands behind her back and smiled obscenely wide. "Daisuke, wanna take a walk with me?"

His mouth went dry. He tried not to think of lip gloss and bikinis, and failed. He opened his mouth to say _Sorry, if I take a walk with you I might flip out and make an idiot of myself, _and found he was saying, "Uh, okay, Riku."

And then, to his horror, he found himself rising off the bench and taking her hand as she reached for his. His chest hurt. He wondered if he was too young to die of a coronary.

They walked. His chest eased up a little. Maybe just a mild heart attack.

And as he forced himself to keep his eyes on Riku, he realized another thing: Dark was sleeping. He wasn't going to transform at all. Why should he be nervous? It was as if half the remaining weight had been lifted from him.

"So I was thinking the other day. We should do something while we're on the field trip, yanno?"

He almost stopped walking, but forced himself to keep moving. "Like what?" he asked miserably, sure that he was missing some subliminal hint. Girls! They never said what they meant. She looked straight up at him, her eyes clear and beautiful, and he felt dizzy all of a sudden. "Things that couples do," she said. "Like… a date, maybe?"

He swallowed again, dryly. "That sounds great," he said honestly. It _did _sound good. If he could keep himself from transforming long enough to actually be with her. But maybe Dark would be willing to co-operate on this trip. Maybe he could get some time alone with Riku for once.

If he could find something that Dark wanted badly enough to trade.

They were around the backside of the school grounds now, where none of the students bothered to eat lunch because it was too far away from the main campus. There was nobody on either side of them. They stood in the shade of an overhang, a trellis of ivy on one side and a patch of bright green lawn beneath their feet. It was almost peaceful.

But Daisuke Niwa's life was fated never to stay peaceful long, because Riku suddenly kissed him on the lips, their hands still joined. And he found it impossible not to react, and then he was sinking down against the wall and she was kneeling in-between his legs, arms twined in his hair and his hands around her waist. His body seemed to respond in ways he'd never known he _could _respond, as if remembering some long lost habit.

**_I've captured you._**

He gasped and pressed his head back against the wall, abruptly ending the fifteen seconds of heaven that they'd just experienced. In that one second he knew who had been in his dream, and he recognized the voice.

Satoshi's voice.

"Daisuke?" Riku said, looking extremely hurt. "Don't you… want to?"

"I do, Riku, I do," Daisuke said. Thank God Dark was still asleep. He didn't have to worry about transforming at the moment and he was glad for that much, because he was more aroused than he'd ever been before. "I'm sorry, but--- God. Riku, I'm sorry." He lifted her off his knees and stood, a crease above his eyebrows, and turned towards the main campus.

"Daisuke!" Riku called after him. But before she could do anything else, he ran.

He didn't come back to class.

* * *

If anyone had been looking down at Rue Royal in the middle of the night, they would have seen Daisuke half-limping his way up the street. His normally bright red hair was a dark crimson, soaking wet from the downpour of rain, and his clothes sagged on him. They were, after all, meant for Dark.

At least they'd stolen the Wise Man of Sleep. Daisuke hadn't expected it to be an earring, of all things. But that didn't matter. Dark was wearing it now and he'd gone to sleep, leaving Daisuke to find his own way home. _I fuckin' hate you, Dark, _he said, even though he knew the phantom thief couldn't hear him, or would just laugh at him if he could.

He paused to stop for breath. After they'd stolen the earring, Dark had had a bright idea to sneak into the control room and loop the footage so that nobody would even realize that he'd come almost two hours earlier than the time given on the notice. They'd been caught, and getting out of the museum had been less fun than he'd have liked. Daisuke had tripped over the awning of a roof and fallen all the way into the alleyway below, nearly killing himself—he shuddered to think of what might have happened if he hadn't caught himself at the last moment.

And then he caught it out of the corner of his eye: a flicker of motion.

It wasn't just the rain, pelting down and freezing cold, even for December weather. It was white, and too bold to be part of the scenery.

A spirit? Menou, maybe? No. She had disappeared. Spirits did not come back from the dead.

There it was again.

And again. Somebody was following him.

He stopped, turned to the side, and opened his eyes wide into the darkness, trying to sense out the other person. He wasn't Dark, but he did have some measure of 'sixth sense' per se, and when he realized where he'd seen the flash of white coming from, he darted into the shadows.

He came off the wall and then walked into the alleyway, facing down his opponent, who was leaning against a wall casually, his arms folded across his chest. He was soaked to the bone.

"Satoshi," Daisuke said uncertainly. "What are you doing here?"

"Making sure you get home," came the voice out of the darkness. It was solid, cold, despite the rain and the chill. Daisuke could hardly even make out the outline of Satoshi's figure, since none of the streetlights were on tonight. "There are things around tonight that even Dark wouldn't notice."

"Such as?"

"Doesn't matter what they are. They're not friendly."

"If I die, that makes your job easier, doesn't it?" Daisuke said flatly.

"Not at all. I might have to wait another forty years for a chance at capturing Dark."

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. He did _not _like the way Satoshi made him feel. At all. It was quite nearly treasonous, a complete confliction of body and mind. He hugged himself with both arms, trying to keep some of the warmth in, and half-turned away from Satoshi. "Well, I'm not gonna drop dead. You don't have to _protect _me."

"That, I believe, is part of my job," Satoshi said lightly. "My business is in capturing Dark and keeping you safe simultaneously." There was that same conversational tone that he had used at his apartment before, that purring, smooth voice that was so different from his normal voice. Daisuke peered closely into the darkness and caught a flash of some other color: yellow. Gold. Not the white of Satoshi's shirt, but something else that reflected the light, like a cat's eyes.

"…Satoshi… are…you… " Daisuke said, then stopped, trying to collect his scattered thoughts before speaking again. "Who _are you?_"

"Hm," said Satoshi, and stood up straight against the wall, facing Daisuke fully on. His clothes draped from his form, silk and leather belt and black dress pants, all completely soaked through, and his silver hair caught what light there was and refracted it a thousand times over. It was angelic. It was demonic. No. Something inbetween…?

"I'm me," he said. "That's all." Daisuke could barely see his lips moving, drops of water sliding down his far-too-pale skin in what bare light there was. His glasses were perched on his nose, that stoic visage the same as always.

Daisuke couldn't help but study it.

"It's dangerous to follow me," Daisuke said. "If Dark was awake, he'd…"

"…Kill me?" Satoshi filled in, his voice still demure, low. It wasn't Satoshi's voice. Something else was speaking through him. This wasn't the Satoshi that Daisuke knew, but then, did he really know him at all?

Daisuke took a step back, towards Rue Royal and towards his house. "Don't follow me, Satoshi. I can take care of myself. I don't want anyone to die because of me, okay? Especially not you." He backed a little further away, trying to keep distance between them, lest the feeling in his stomach rise up and overwhelm him entirely.

For a few moments, neither of them said anything.

"You don't know everything about Dark," he said at last. There were two voices this time, one layered over the other. There was Satoshi's normal voice, the one Daisuke was used to hearing at school and otherwise, but even stronger was another: deep and thoroughly male, with a twinge of some kind of accent, nearly unnoticeable. This second voice was seductive, sultry; it wrapped around you like a warm blanket, drawing you in. But within that warmth was steel so sharp that anyone who was drawn in would surely die.

"Satoshi, what's wrong with your voice?" He asked, eyes widening. Each breath his heart beat a little faster as every nerve in his body told him to get the _hell _out of there. But he held his ground as Satoshi came towards him, slowly and steadily.

"My Tamer is becoming eclipsed," said that odd voice, though it was coming out of Satoshi's mouth. "Soon he'll be nothing but a silhouette. You are simply an obstacle. He belongs solely to _me. Make no mistake_ about that."

"Who are you?" Daisuke demanded. "What're you doing to Satoshi?"

"You already know who I am."

It clicked. "Krad," he said, both a summons and a curse, in a short hiss of breath.

Slowly, Satoshi nodded. There was a maniac gleam to his eye. This was not the usual calm, impassive Satoshi. This was a homicidal killer, someone without remorse or compassion, someone who hated everything that lived. This was Krad. So he was finally getting to meet him, was he?

Suddenly Satoshi's eyes widened. His entire body stiffened and he gave a jerk of his shoulders, falling to his knees in a puddle of water as he was shaken by tremors.

Daisuke just watched helplessly. He wanted to help him, but if Krad was in there… if Krad, that other side that his mother had warned him about, was really awake, then what would happen now?

"It's not time," said Krad. "Not yet. But soon."

And then Satoshi raised his head. His eyes were unfocused, foggy; Daisuke could see no more of that odd gold reflection in them. The pace of the rain quickened and thrummed against the rooftops, and both of them were completely silent, Satoshi kneeling in a puddle and Daisuke backed against a brick wall several steps away. But without warning, Daisuke felt himself gripped by something: anger. White hot anger.

"Satoshi," he said, "Is this all we're supposed to do? Just let stuff happen to us?"

"I don't know," he said crisply. "It's getting harder to fight him. I don't know what that was. He's never tried to do that before. Get out of here, Daisuke. He may try to do it again." Each word was controlled, evenly measured.

"But…" Daisuke moved off the wall. "Isn't there anything I can do to… help?" he recalled Krad's words. _Soon he'll be nothing but a silhouette. _He paused uncertainly. He knew nothing about Krad except for what his mother had told him: that Krad and Satoshi shared a body and that Krad was Dark's enemy. But he did know that he _wanted _to help Satoshi. He didn't know why, but he felt as if he ought to. And there was that horrible gut-wrenching feeling again.

"No." With visible effort Satoshi shoved himself to his feet. "You, I believe, are the trigger. Or possibly Dark is. I'm not sure yet."

"But—"

"I'm sorry."

Satoshi turned and walked away, and the darkness swallowed him whole in just a few steps. When Daisuke ran after him, calling his name just twice, he found that Satoshi had gone entirely. But how had he disappeared so quickly, Daisuke wondered? It was almost as if he were part of the air itself. He gave up, filled with despair, and went home. Dark had remained asleep the entire time. It was almost as if he'd been twice as tired as usual. He should have woken up for something like that.

When he finally tumbled into bed, the alarm clock read one oh nine.


	6. Darkness Falling

Agh, sorry for the lag in updates. Bunch a' messes to clean up with roommates moving out and schedules re-organizing. But now I'm back, so there.

* * *

Daisuke curled up against the mirror behind him, eyes squeezed shut tightly. He was trying to keep the sickening, rocking feeling currently occupying his lower stomach from spreading to the rest of his body. So far he'd been successful. But no matter what he did, he couldn't get over the dreams he'd had the night before: Satoshi's face, reflected a thousand times. Satoshi, Satoshi, Satoshi. Was that all he ever dreamed about anymore?

_Ugh, I'm tired._

"I'll bet. After leaving me to get home by myself. You bastard."

_Aw, that's not fair, Dai. I stole the earring, didn't I? Could you have done that yourself?_

Daisuke sighed through his nose. "No." his mind recalled vividly the memory of the night before: Satoshi in the rain, Krad's voice, his confusion. All of last night's meeting had been confusing. He forced all the images upon Dark's consciousness in rapid succession.

He felt Dark's surprise. _Satoshi followed you last night?_

"Yeah. I don't get it. It was like… he was trying to protect me, but then he told me that you and I are the 'trigger' for him transforming. Doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

_Well. That's interesting. _Dark's mind whizzed. _Krad… maybe he didn't know Krad was going to try and manifest. But it sounds like Krad hasn't manifested _yet, _or there would have been a lot more to worry about._

"So what do we do?" Daisuke groaned into his hands. He was perched on a closed toilet seat, feeling completely horrendous. He thought he might throw up at any moment, and he wanted to be good and near a toilet when he did. They'd only just gotten to the hotel they were supposed to stay at, and they'd had to take a boat to get there. Boats always made him nauseous.

_Dunno, kid. Just keep a sharp lookout._

"That's helpful," Daisuke said sarcastically. There was a banging on the bathroom door suddenly and some bumping noises. It sounded as if two elephants were forcing their way into the room. Daisuke leveraged himself against the wall, then to the door, and opened it to peek outside.

"Hey, Niwa! We're goin' to the beach!" Takeshi. Just the person he wanted to see. He gave another groan. His mother had given him a notice card to release to the police, and if he didn't do it by tonight then she'd probably be frantic.

He looked outside the door to see two of his classmates lugging all of Takeshi's suitcases into the room. He had quite a lot of them. Takeshi suddenly turned and barked out commands at them: "Subara, put that one on the left! Sakameshi, you retard, that's _Daisuke's _bed. Mine's over there." This complete, he grinned at Daisuke as if he were proud of himself. "So are you coming or not?" he asked.

"No," Daisuke said sadly, though he wanted nothing more than to spend time with Riku in a bikini. But that, he was sure, would cause him to transform, and he couldn't afford to blow his cover when he was so far from home. "I have to… do something."

"Right, like meet Riku for some quick action?" Takeshi said with a straight face. Dark burst out laughing inside Daisuke's mind, and Daisuke himself turned a very ungainly shade of red. _As if we'd even gotten that far, _he thought to himself. He didn't remember what he said in reply, he was so flustered, but Takeshi left, leaving Daisuke to change out of his clothes and into something lighter. The weather was hot here.

* * *

Ten minutes later Daisuke stood at the foot of an enormous iron pole, intricately decorated, with a small statue perched at the very top. It wasn't very high even though it was wide, only about ten feet tall or so, and he could feel Dark's irritation practically dripping from his voice. _Emiko wants me to steal _this? _It's not even worth a warning note. Nobody would care about something so stupid out in the middle of nowhere._

"Well, we don't have a choice," Daisuke growled. "I'm gonna get ready." He was still slightly ticked off that he couldn't go to the beach with the rest of the class.

It felt as if an icy finger had trickled down his neck. "Did you feel that?" he asked, pausing dead on the spot. Dark shifted uneasily. _I think we're being watched._

"Think it's the artwork?" Daisuke eyed the statue.

_No. It's probably nothing. _

Daisuke shrugged it off. Whatever it was, it would have to wait: he had a mission to complete.

* * *

Darkness had fallen now, and the stars were beginning to sparkle beautifully. He couldn't pay much attention to the scenery at the moment, though otherwise he would have found it fascinating. He focused on the small ball of fluff in his hands: "Hey, Wiz?" he called. He'd found the little creature napping just outside the door of the hotel in a bush, and prodded it to try and wake it up. Sleepily it stretched out both legs and then rose up with a shimmer, quickly becoming a pair of wings as Daisuke relinquished control of his body to Dark.

_There. Feel that?_

Another chill. "Something's definitely watching us. But that's all it's doing." Dark bent his head low and walked calmly out of the main pavilion and off towards the docksides, where the statue was. Nobody saw them, of course: nobody ever noticed Dark when he didn't want them to.

"This thing… it's like I can feel what's inside it, now that I'm actually looking at it," Dark said. "Can't you, Dai?"

_Not really. To me it just feels like a--- _he suddenly found himself being pushed back into the furthest recesses of Dark's mind, all contact between them cut off in a split second as a mental 'block' rose. _Dark, the hell are you doing? _He shouted angrily, to no reply.

There was someone standing at the edge of the dock. Dark half-turned, making no move at first. Daisuke couldn't tell what he was thinking anymore, and he didn't even recognize the figure until Dark spoke.

"Here to stop us, Hiwatari?"

Daisuke hadn't seen Satoshi much, and he'd assumed that the two of them would be keeping a low profile this far from home. But now he realized that that had been a possibly fatal mistake. The less chance there was of Daisuke receiving aid from his mother or grandfather, the more Satoshi would naturally want to try and capture him.

"No. I only want you."

Dark snickered, but the laughing came to an abrupt halt when Satoshi held up something in his hand: a small mirror, the depths of which were inky black and the rims adorned with silver trim. It was a beautiful thing, naturally, but Daisuke could feel the waves of power flowing from it without even trying.

"Now return." This was said in a completely stoic, uncaring tone.

There was a sudden violent twisting jerk, and Daisuke felt as if he were being torn completely in half down the middle. He screamed with the pain of it, clutching himself as if he didn't want to lose part of his body. Fire burned away at every inch of him, melting his skin, the muscle underneath, charring the bones---

---he was flung backwards and hit a wall. He was no longer watching from Dark's perspective; he was back in his own body. But how? No… Dark had gotten sucked into the mirror somehow. He was gone! There was a blurry vacancy inside him where the thief's presence had been.

The next few minutes were a blur. He knew he was slipping into unconsciousness. He felt a blissfully cool hand on his burning forehead. "I'm sorry," a voice whispered. "Satoshi…why here..?" he said weakly, trying to force his body to move. But no luck. Daisuke sagged against the pavestones, his eyelids fluttering. There was a sudden intake of air from Satoshi, and then some kind of snarling noise.

Wait a second, he knew that sound! It was Wiz.

Wiz launched himself at the figure before him, trying to sink his teeth into the figure's arm. The figure, however, merely batted the ball of fur away before he even got close enough to touch. Wiz sprawled off against the pole and sank down with a high-pitched shriek of pain.

"Again we meet." A hand passed into his narrow tunnel of vision, and his brain cleared, just a little, as he accepted the hand offered to him and was pulled to his feet shakily. His face was cut down one cheek and was bleeding, he knew, but he could only look up at this new person in complete and total wonder. He was like Dark, really, but not so much identical as alike in facial features. They had the same delicate bone structure. But his hair was bright, bright gold, so lustrous that it seemed as if it were really spun gold. Wasn't there a fairytale about spun gold…?

But his eyes. They were yellow, narrowed like a cat's, and completely devoid of feeling. These were the eyes Daisuke had seen the night before. He shuddered and tried to pull away from Krad's grip, but was drawn towards his warm body. He realized that an arm was encircling his neck and tightening with every second; slowly, like a snake squeezing the life out of its prey.

"And now you die."

_Dark, where are you? _

_(I'm in the mirror! The earring, it sucked me in!)_

_For God's sake, help me! This is happening too fast!_

"…Why…?" he asked, his teeth clenching as he tried to suck in as much air as he could. His lungs were being deprived, he knew, and soon his brain and heart would begin to die if he didn't get free. He struggled in Krad's grip, even though he knew it was futile. Those eyes left no room for negotiations. They did whatever the hell they wanted and didn't stop to think twice.

"My Tamer's in love with you. You're. In. My. Way." With each of the last words, Krad tightened his grip even more, clearly attempting to snap Daisuke's spinal column. A second passed in which Daisuke gave up all hope of living, a sickening red passing over his eyes, and then there was a burst of movement and Krad stumbled to the side, his hold relinquishing as he gave a feral snarl.

"Dark Mousy!" he shouted, and his fury was electric. Daisuke sucked in a deep breath, snatched the mirror out of Krad's other hand, and threw himself over the banister of the dock, into the water. "WIZ!" he shouted, hoping to God that the creature wasn't dead.

He hit the cold water with a shock and sank down. He couldn't swim up, not in this condition.

And sank.

_Satoshi… why is he doing this to me?_

Further…

_I can't do this by myself! I'm going to die here! _Panic overwhelmed him and his oxygen supply was running out quickly. The mirror in his hand grew unbearably hot and then cold again: though he'd thought nothing more could surprise him, he felt himself being lifted up, out of the water… flying, even.

_Wait. Flying? _

Wiz wasn't dead after all. The air actually tasted sweet as Daisuke rose up again, past Krad, who was looking into the water with a smug expression on his face. This smugness dropped off and was replaced with livid fury as he unleashed an attack at Daisuke. It missed, and Daisuke fluttered down to land on the top of the banister.

"Satoshi," he said, almost pleading, "I know you're in there. Tell me how to get Dark out of here."

Krad laughed.

"Satoshi! _Damnit, _come out!" A strain of terror entered his voice.

"He can't hear you." Krad's hand shot out and a bolt of energy hit Daisuke in the chest, sending him sailing over the railing once more. He coughed this time, and dragged himself to the surface. He'd been almost expecting to get hit again, and so he'd tucked in his head at the last moment and hadn't lost any air hitting the surface.

He clawed his way back to the surface of the water, gulped air, and then began to swim his way to shore. It wasn't very far, only a few yards, but Wiz was still attached to his back in wing form and the wings dragged in the water, serving only to pull him down further.

He crawled up on the shore and looked back to the dock. There was no sign of Krad. Maybe Satoshi had regained control? _Please, God, let him be okay. _

Daisuke's arms were beginning to numb a little from the cold, and he was soaked to the bone, but that was okay. He wasn't focusing on the cold or the wet right now so much as that he was fuckin' _tired _and if he didn't get somewhere safe soon then Krad might come back.

He began almost-limping towards the hotel, silently praying that Dark would be okay for a little while inside the mirror. He was a phantom, right? He could live outside Daisuke's body, he hoped.

Two hands forced him to stop as they clamped onto his waist. "Dark!" a high pitched voice said from behind him.

_Riku! _His heart ceased beating. When had she gotten down here? Had she seen him? Did she know who he was? Had she seen him transform…?

…And started again. No, only Risa. Not Riku at all.

"Dark!" she said again. "Please, I really want to tell you how I feel about you!"

Daisuke's wings dragged behind him, dripping water and flapping weakly as they tried to dry themselves. Poor Wiz. He must have been having a hell of a night. Daisuke regretfully shook Risa off, still not looking at her. _She thinks I'm Dark—but I don't have time for this. She'll figure out who I am. _And then, just as he had the day before after Riku had kissed him, he sprinted down the beach, leaving her behind, looking more shocked than ever. He wondered how she had gotten down onto the beach, anyhow.

As he rounded the corner and stopped to pause for breath, the blood rushed to his head, and he closed his eyes, leaning against a wall and pressing his tongue to the roof of his mouth determinedly. He wasn't going to die, not here. Though his arm hurt slightly, he knew it wasn't broken or busted, and he was only bleeding in a few places. His skin stung from the saltwater, and he was going to be one giant bruise in the morning, he was sure of it.

Everything closed in on him at once. It was like he was in a giant tunnel, and the exit was nothing more than a pinprick of light. He didn't want to die, he thought belatedly, his knees crumpling as the feeling of faintness landed on him.

_I hope no-one finds me, _he thought to himself. And then: _I hope Dark's alive in there. _

He tried to keep his vision from spiraling as it faded out, but no matter what he tried, he couldn't keep anything solid for long.

He felt a hand touching his face, and then someone lifting him.

_I hope it isn't Krad, _he thought before he went out.


	7. Prime Hour

Hah! I had to write this tonight because everyone in my little clan of roomies is gone and I'm stuck here with a coke and an old Audrey Hepburn movie. I much prefer writing to Hepburn, thankyou very much. :)

Okay, and now the smutty lovescene that all you people read for. Though this certainly won't be the last chapter, nor the last SatoxDaisuke scene, nor even the last DarkxDaisuke scene if I have my way with my conscience.

And yes, I'm trying to keep it as canon as possible. It's very like the manga in most aspects, though you may see a few odd changes here and there where I wasn't meticulous enough or didn't have the manga volume and had to go by memory. For instance, if anything in this chapter is wrong, it's because it's all from my suckarse photographic memory. Daisuke may or may not have changed clothes between going to the hotel and going to steal the statue.

* * *

His first thought was, _I must be at home._

And secondly: _But without Dark. Wonder if he's sleeping…?_

He knew that someone was actually cleansing him, and that he wasn't doing it himself, and that this person couldn't be his mom because it didn't _feel_ like his mom. The atmosphere was different. Whoever this was, they were gentler, better at this than they had any right to be.

It felt better than anything had in a long time.

He wondered if he should speak, but decided against it, because if he spoke then it felt like this spell of warmth would be broken and he would tumble off some kind of dark cliff. This didn't make sense to him, but he knew it to be true anyways. There was a dripping sound. A soft, _shaaa _noise. Oh! He knew that noise—someone squeezing water out of a washcloth.

There was a gentle scrubbing sensation on his back. Someone pressed the warmth of the washcloth onto his back in circles, scrubbing as if he were something breakable. His neck was forward, his hair falling over his face and into his eyes, and he was leaned over, kept in place by another, rather stronger arm.

And then, he realized, his arm was bandaged. Good thing, too, 'cause it had been bleeding rather a lot when he'd been back on the beach before----

Shit, the beach. Why could he remember the beach and not anything before that? He remembered collapsing on the beach and nothing else. Though something, like a little warning light, told him that whatever had happened was incredibly important, and that he should remember it as quickly as possible. But hands were smoothing his hair, down the back of his neck, and the water was crimson, with bubbles of red floating on the surface where soap had collected.

There was blood in the water.

He gave a startled kind of noise: "My God!" he said, and tried to back away from the water he was currently immersed in to his waist, and realized several things all at once just by opening his eyes fully. The first was that he had a raging headache like never before, the next was that he was entirely naked, and the third was that the blood had come from him. He'd been patched up in several places with some kind of high-tech bandage and was not bleeding any more, but he had caused the blood in the first place. He had backed up against the porcelain surface of a bathtub.

"Shh, don't try to move too much," said a voice from just behind his ear. "Unless you think you're… able. I don't know how much you're hurt."

Daisuke's body immediately relaxed. Okay, Satoshi was a friend. He would handle things—No, no! Satoshi was _not _a friend. _Satoshi tried to kill me. He's Krad! _Oxygen flowed into his brain and awakened the memories of the evening. He felt two hands pressing down on his upper arms, keeping him trapped against the side of the bathtub, and a voice trying to speak comforting things to him. "You're safe, Daisuke."

"You tried to fucking kill me!" he protested. His voice sounded softer to himself, somehow. Less sure.

"I didn't. That was Krad. He's subdued for a while now. I'm afraid you can't go back to the hotel at the moment."

"Why not? I'm bleeding, Satoshi." He tried to sit up, found that he was still being restrained. "I want… my clothes. I need to…" He turned his head, caught Satoshi's ice blue gaze. An unwavering, steady sight. He liked that gaze. Wait. No, he didn't… Satoshi was an enemy of his family, an enemy of Dark. He _hated _Satoshi.

"Need to what? See a doctor?"

"I can take care of myself," he snarled.

Satoshi didn't look hurt at all by this. "I'm placing you under police surveillance. As of now, you are in my custody."

"Like hell I am. You're my family's enemy. You're a… A Hikari, for Chrissake. I'm not supposed to be around you. You took Dark from me, Satoshi. My other half."

"And you miss him?" Satoshi asked. It was not an innocent question.

Daisuke scrunched up his mouth to offer some biting retort, but stopped before speaking a single word. _Miss Dark? Do I? I don't have to worry about him… when he's not here… I won't have to worry about him touching me for a while, maybe._

No, it wasn't touching that Dark did. It was rape, and he knew it. But he did it for his family, for his mother most of all. Satoshi knew it too, and took his silence to be a negation of its own sort. "Daisuke, I'm going to use my authority. You're not leaving."

He blinked. "Can… I have my clothes, then…?" He didn't even want to imagine what must have happened. Of course, Satoshi had been kind enough to sweep him up and carry him off to his hotel room, then undressed him and washed the blood and filth off him, as well as cleaning his wounds. He ought to have been thankful, but it just made him turn red with embarrassment even more.

Satoshi, after giving the washcloth a look, nodded and stood, then fetched Daisuke's clothes from a pile a few feet away. Daisuke pulled his knees to his chest, watching him the entire time. Satoshi was wearing his school uniform. His tie was almost falling off from being hurriedly fixed numerous times, and his white shirt was unbuttoned at the very top, sleeves rolled to above his elbows and exposing flawlessly smooth alabaster skin. His shirttails were untucked from his pants. He looked ragged, even for someone with model-like good looks, as if he'd gone a couple of days without sleep. He wasn't wearing his glasses.

Daisuke was startled when the bundle of clothing was handed to him. He took them and then stood, dressing with his back turned to Satoshi. Satoshi was, of course, watching, which made the entire process extremely awkward and made him flame all the way to his fingertips with chagrin. But a quick scan of the room proved the reason.

There were two doors in Satoshi's room, because he had a suite instead of a regular room shared between two kids. The second exit from the room was just behind the bathtub. It was locked with a security punch-code box, but that wouldn't have prevented Daisuke from being out of there in a flash if he wanted to be.

He zipped up his jeans and tugged on his shirt, both of which were soaking. But he was just glad to have his boxers on again underneath. Though he knew he'd be bruising in the morning, from what he could see through the window, it was still nighttime. The ocean looked amazing in the starlight.

"So what does this have to do with me?" he asked. "Police surveillance, I mean…?"

Satoshi sighed. "I can't let you go back just now. Especially since you're staying in a room with others. If you come in looking like you do, there'll be questions, and I can't compromise security."

Daisuke looked troubled. "I'm… well…" he didn't quite know where to start. "I wanted to ask you. Why did you transform? Did Krad force you? Who is he? Is he different from Dark?" He had so many questions, and now that he was dressed, he was ready to have them answered.

Satoshi turned his head to the side, so Daisuke could only see his profile against the moonlight. He led into the adjoining room, where there was a small lounge and minibar, a television, a kitchen, and a bedroom area. "Anything to drink?" He asked.

"…Water…?" Daisuke said helplessly. He was parched.

A bottle of water swung through the air in a perfect arc. He caught it, snapped the lid, thankfully brought cool liquid to his horribly dry throat. And then Satoshi took a seat on the couch, and Daisuke took a seat opposite him. What other choice did he have? Besides, he knew, Satoshi couldn't get away with murdering him on the hotel grounds. There would be too many questions. No, Daisuke suspected, if Satoshi wanted him dead, he would have carted him somewhere else while he was unconscious.

So what did he want?

"Krad and I… we're different from you and Dark," Satoshi began. "We are… not dynamic? I don't know what I should say. When he appears, it is not of my will. But his will is stronger than mine, just as Dark's is stronger than yours. He was angry tonight."

"Angry?"

Satoshi gave him one of those unsettling, long stares. Daisuke was suddenly greeted with a memory, floating up to his eyes:

_My Tamer's in love with you._

And then Dark's voice.

_You're in love with Satoshi, aren't you?_

This was so fucking _confusing._

"Oh." This was all he could say. He looked at the water bottle in his hands, noticing the ridges on the rim, the beats of moisture trickling down the outside, the label written in Swedish. Nothing but the best for commander Hiwatari. He shifted his palm to cup the underside of it, and there was a silence thick enough to be palpable.

"I'll have to get Dark back." This was not a question. Satoshi gave something that was almost a very dry smile: "I know."

"And you're going to stop me, I suppose."

"No."

At this, Daisuke felt two emotions: shock and relief. His eyes opened wide: "Why? You're just going to let me do it?"

He looked out at the ocean, so dark and still and stonily silent, without so much as a cruise ship stirring the waves. When he looked back to Daisuke, his face was resolute. "I decided something when I was down there on the beach. I won't hurt you anymore, Daisuke. It's too much to ask for you to share my misery."

"Share your misery?"

"I have no one to look after me. No parents, no guardians. If Krad and I were to disappear, the only ones who would care would be those who have adopted me, simply because they intend to use me for their own purposes. No, I won't tell you what they are—" he held up a hand to stop Daisuke's questioning look, "But you are something that I am not. You are part of a family. And I suspect that the only reason you tolerate Dark is for them."

Daisuke's eyes glimmered. "How do you know these things.. about me?" he whispered, gripping his bandaged arm with his good hand.

Satoshi shrugged. "Did you think it wasn't obvious to me? You hate him. But you get along with him, because if anyone were to find out that he has to _rape you _to _subdue you _into agreeing with him, it would mean chaos."

"They know," Daisuke replied in a steely tone. He remembered the look on his grandfather's face when he'd come down to the laundry room. "They know, and they don't care, because all they want is another fucking thief. That's why my mom wanted me. So I could be her… _toy _or something." He chuckled bitterly, still examining the water bottle far more closely than he ought to be.

There was silence. He eventually turned his face towards Satoshi, and was struck dumb by the look on his face. It was like a mix between horror and concern and reluctance and… and…

He swallowed. He was becoming horribly aroused. Like his body, for some reason, wasn't obeying his own emotions and was instead replying to feelings buried much deeper. Things he'd tried to keep hidden, memories he'd wanted to forget and passions that could never actually surface.

"We're just different," Daisuke stammered, trying to pull himself back into the conversation. "I-I mean, Dark's so casual and I'm just awkward, and he's great with girls, and I can't ever get up the courage to do anything with Ri—" He faltered on the name. Satoshi was rising. "He's handsome," he said, trying to keep his eyes off Satoshi as he moved towards Daisuke, "And I'm really, really plain…" Satoshi was right next to him now.

Daisuke made a choking noise. He was trying hard not to cry. He'd never allowed himself that liberty of crying, because guys didn't cry. Dark would never in a million years break down. So he had to be strong, and especially in the presence of someone like Satoshi, when other feelings could overwhelm everything.

"You're quite beautiful," Satoshi said quietly. Unfeeling as always, but his words spoke differently.

Daisuke's face was truly priceless. He'd obviously never been told that before. Never once in his life, not by anyone.

"No one's ever said that to you?"

"N-no."

"…Daisuke, is something wrong?" He was more like an adult, really, when one thought about it, and took his behavior into consideration. Daisuke began to shake his head and then stopped. "No, it's just, I mean, Satoshi, I _can't, _I want to, but I just can't…" He was aware that he was on the verge of internal chaos.

Satoshi saved him the trouble and just kissed him.

Kissing Satoshi was different from kissing Dark. Dark was dangerous, edgy, passionate, fiery. Satoshi was caring and tender and gentle and not at all shy. There was no frost in his kiss, unlike his speech or mannerisms. Daisuke took his hands and put one on the back of Satoshi's head, his brow creasing. He craved this more than food, more than air. Everything he'd been denying for the past few months came pouring out. He'd never stopped to consider if loving a fellow male was _wrong _or _different. _It just was. With Riku the craving was sexual. With Satoshi it was something more.

He wondered if it was real.

"I love you, Daisuke." No artifice or lies. Nevertheless Daisuke shrank suddenly. That was what Dark said, every time. Satoshi had mumbled it to his left ear with warm breath, teeth almost grazing his earlobe, his entire profile visible in Daisuke's peripheral vision.

"I'm sorry, I really can't do this—" He sprung up from the couch and headed past the bed and towards the hotel room door, fully intending to just hack the code required to leave and run. But he felt a hand press into the doorjamb just above his head, and half shrank from the sudden movement.

"Wait."

"Shit!" Daisuke swore, punched in the save-all code, watched the light turn green, and then red again because Satoshi was holding the door closed. "Shit, shit, shit…" there were tears streaming down his face and he didn't know why he was crying, only that he was, and that he needed to get out of there _now. _His nose stung. "Let me out, Satoshi. Just let me out. I can't do this. I really can't."

He didn't turn to see Satoshi's expression, but suddenly the hand came away from the door and it swung open, leading into a darkened hallway. It must have been nearly midnight now. Nobody was in the hallway, and the place was deserted, a ghost hotel.

Daisuke stopped in the doorway.

He felt like there were actually ropes tying him to the spot. Go. Get out of there. _He could try and kill you. Do you want to die on his hotel room floor, with Krad standing over you? _He'd tried to snap Daisuke's spine before. He meant business. And who knew if Satoshi could keep him under wraps? But on the pro side of the scale he wanted to kiss Satoshi again more than he'd ever wanted anything. His entire body was literally burning up. He felt like he was on fire.

No, literally. He was feverish. Maybe from the onset of a cold.

Satoshi obviously noticed the personal struggle. But he kept his mouth shut and didn't say anything. _My life. So fuckin' dramatic. _Daisuke wiped his cheek with the palm of his hand, then pressed his palm into the hollow of his eye, blurring out the darkness of the hallway with the darkness of his flesh.

In a moment of clarity, he made his decision, a beam of light in a cloud of fog.

He didn't care if he was betraying his family. This was his own time.

He turned around, slammed the door, and looked at him tiredly. "I've been thinking a lot. But you know what? I don't care what Dark, or my parents, or Riku thinks, or anyone. I don't." he lowered his eyes to the carpet and kept them there. "I feel… different when I'm around you. You make me happy. I don't know what else to say."

Satoshi watched him say all this with perfect stillness. "I'm not forcing you. I just thought you should know… how I feel." He'd regained the mask of perfection, his face completely arranged into the epitome of cold isolation. He was ready to shut all his emotions carefully back inside if Daisuke rejected him and left.

Daisuke couldn't help but let the feelings carry him over the edge. It must have taken a lot of courage to say that, from Satoshi's perspective. He'd never so much as give anyone else the time of day. Daisuke edged closer and stood there, his face crimson, not sure what he was going to say next, but sort of letting the words tumble out. "I feel the same way," he said quickly. "It's just… um, I've never done anything like this with anyone else but Dark, and…" he looked up at him hopefully.

Satoshi laughed. He actually chuckled. It was so new and strange a look that Daisuke was awestruck for a moment before he found a finger smoothly brushing away the tears on his chin and cheek. "Is _that _all that's wrong?" He asked, and still smiling, leaned closer.

Satoshi bent to kiss him again. This time, he didn't pull away. His hands reached around to the small of Daisuke's back and just under his arm, to his shoulderblade, as he pressed Daisuke against the wall. Daisuke reached up again to feel that hair, so perfect and soft and… well, it wasn't normal hair. It was quite simply divine. He could feel Satoshi's need pressing in on him like something palpable.

Daisuke made a noise in the back of his throat, somewhere between _mmph _and _Oh, God _and tried to keep hold on reality as Satoshi pressed his forehead to Daisuke's, breathing hard.

If Daisuke had felt passion for Satoshi before, then he didn't know what to call the feeling now.

Gradually they were backing off the wall, completely wrapped around each other, and when the back of Daisuke's knees bumped the edge of the bed he simply collapsed onto the mattress, with Satoshi on top of him, pressing down, devouring him with a love that had lasted so long, he knew now. It was nothing _like _Dark.

He was faintly surprised to feel his own erection growing against Satoshi's leg, and not a little mortified, because he'd never actually _done it _with someone he really liked before, and would Satoshi hurt him, he wondered, and what was he supposed to do? What was he supposed to think? Should he act differently?

"You… really are beautiful," Satoshi said, slightly out of breath. His eyes were literally sparkling, a look that was completely new on him. He never looked happy. But now, he was almost glowing, touching Daisuke as if he wasn't sure if he was allowed to. Daisuke found himself red in the face again at this proclamation, still not sure what to make of it. "I want to make you feel that way," he added, a coy smile present. He pushed off the bed and fumbled in his nightstand drawer for only a second, though it was graceful—Satoshi _never _looked stupid doing anything—and in his hand was a proper container of lubricant. He set this aside on the pillow and returned to arching over Daisuke, both of them drawing breath from each other as if they breathed the same air.

Satoshi divested Daisuke of his shirt slowly, unbuttoning each button in procession, pulling apart the lapels to reveal the willowy frame beneath. He distracted Daisuke from this motion by kissing him further, hungrily, until Daisuke eventually looked down and realized his shirt was open and his jeans were being tugged off by the legs. As soon as these were gone, he wrapped a hand of his own around Satoshi's half-on tie, tugging him down onto him, and kissing the top of his head as he removed Satoshi's own shirt and unbuttoned his pants. Satoshi pressed his teeth to the skin just above Daisuke's navel, and for a second all he could think about was the arousal pressing into Satoshi's chest, feeling the blood coursing through his body, pumping madly.

Satoshi peeled back the top of his boxers, and he was now entirely exposed.

He supposed he shouldn't have felt conscious of his own nakedness, because Satoshi had already been bathing the blood off him when he'd woken up and so he'd seen everything already and that didn't make sense, but he couldn't help it anyways.

He closed his eyes and lay back, suddenly feeling a lack of emotion… he was happy to kiss Satoshi, but _that _was different. He didn't want to be hurt.

And warm shock enveloped him when he realized that Satoshi had covered his erection with his hot, moist mouth. His eyes fluttered, widened, and he struggled to push himself onto the bed instead of being somewhat half on, half off the mattress. Satoshi curled his fingers around the base of Daisuke's shaft, running his tongue along the underside all the way to the sensitive head, swirling his tongue, and once there, taking the entire length into his mouth.

"What…!" Daisuke said, and even that one word was slightly slurred. He'd never felt this. He'd known what a blow job was, obviously, but he'd never thought it would feel this _right, _this _good. _It was a concentric warmth pooling in his lower belly that brought him back to realization, as Satoshi ran the pads of his long fingers up the shaft and down again, just once. It sent a fiery twang up his nether regions and completely shut off his brain; he was reduced to something half human when Satoshi flicked his tongue across the head of his penis.

He gave off a moan and lifted himself off the bed, twisting unconsciously in Satoshi's ministrations. And every time he looked up, he could only see the devilish pleasure in those crystalline eyes, the desire to please, and even more shocking, a rock solid love. The base of his shaft was fisted once more and he thrust up into it, and Satoshi's mouth, his body finding an addiction to the feeling almost immediately. And there was something else growing, something amazing…

"I'm… I'm going to…" he said, trying to give fair warning before he came into Satoshi's mouth, absolutely writhing with elation and ecstasy, his mind so busy elsewhere that he didn't even notice when two fingers slipped inside him, heavily lubricated. He made some noise of protestation, but Satoshi continued to stroke his shaft with one hand and probe with the other, pressing his mouth to Daisuke's neck.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered, his voice thick. "And if I do, tell me."

Daisuke found himself surprised by that even more than by the blowjob. He was being _asked? _He actually had a decision? He could… if he didn't want anything more, he could say no, and it would be done. He could do that.

But he wanted this.

He lifted his back off the bedsheets, surprised for a moment as Satoshi hit that one pleasure spot, the only pleasant spot that he knew inside of him. As Satoshi did brush against it with his index finger he curled it up at the end, just a little bit, sending about a thousand _different _nerves into shivers. Daisuke yelped and curled his hands in the bedsheets, his neck arching back as if there were no bones in it, his red hair matting to his forehead and his mouth open slightly, but not very much, just to help him breathe. He couldn't breathe too well. Not as if he were choking or anything, but it was almost like—

Satoshi pressed his own cock between Daisuke's legs, and for a second fear seized him. But he relaxed; _Satoshi won't hurt me. He won't hurt me. He won't…_

The first push was slow, smooth. Not uncomfortable. He had used copious amounts of lube and it was not at all painful. Daisuke arched into it, surprised at the lack of roughness; no, this was all slick and gentle and tender and loving and… different. So much better.

"Sa-to-shi…" he said slowly, and with that Satoshi paused to let him adjust—again, something new, and he felt his muscles relax slightly—then leaned over him. "Yes?" his eyes were not at all glazed. If anything they were painfully bright, shining with a light from within. His normally pallid skin had a blush to it. He was absolutely beautiful naked; and when Daisuke found himself thinking this, he was even more mortified that he would think this way about a _guy. _But he liked girls, too, so did that make this wrong? No, this couldn't be wrong. Nothing that felt this good could be wrong.

"I love you too," he said, straining against the delicious feeling of a hard-on against his prostate. With that, Satoshi withdrew slowly, and began the second thrust. They created a rhythm together. There was no mechanical knowledge required; their bodies did it automatically, as if they were really two parts of a puzzle and knew just what to do on instinct. Slow and steady.

When Satoshi came, their eyes met, just for a moment. It was almost scary how the attraction was magnetic between them; it was like Daisuke couldn't take his eyes away. He felt his insides being coated with warmth and didn't mind, because it wasn't an altogether bad feeling, if it was a little new. Dark did not orgasm because he didn't need to. When he did what he did, it was for control, for obsession, not for love.

As Satoshi's erection became slightly softer inside him, the older boy withdrew and rolled onto his side, closing his eyes for a moment. There were no words needed for a few minutes but the near-silence of their breathing. Daisuke's head was spinning. How could this feel so good? How could sex feel so amazing? Was this why people did it?

"Can I… borrow… your shower…?" Daisuke asked.

"Mmhm." It wasn't even a word, but it was an incredibly sexy noise, and he was attracted to it. He grinned, pressed a kiss to Satoshi's eyelid as he lay flat back on the bed, and slipped into the shower, trying to erase his doubts about what he'd just done. Voices filtered through his mind. He argued with himself as the first stream of hot water shot out, washing him clean of everything:

_The second Dark leaves, you go and have sex with the enemy._

_**That's not true. I've felt this way about Satoshi for a long time…**_

_Have you? Or was it just your loneliness that drove you to it?_

_**No. It wasn't.**_

_And what about Riku?_

_**I can't be with Riku! That's different!**_

_Not yet. But maybe on this trip._

_**I don't care about Riku like I do about him. **_This was true. Both sides agreed on that much, and with that, he silenced his fears with the knowledge that Satoshi loved him. Someone _loved him. _And not just because he was someone else. Not because he was the phantom thief dark, or because he was housing a legacy, or because he was good-looking, or a good candidate for a commercial.

Not because he was a good son who did whatever the hell he was told. Not because he was pretending to be someone else by day. Not because he was a lie, and because even his life was not his own, and that he had to share it with someone else. Not because of any of these things.

For the first time that night in his lifetime, Daisuke slept in someone else's arms. Satoshi made no noise when he slept except a light breathing that was almost impossible to hear unless you put your ear right next to his partially-open mouth. And though the bed was wide enough for six people, they slept as if they needed each other's warmth to live, to survive. They were two men thrown into the most unlikely of circumstances. Enemies, sleeping in the same bed, sharing the same body heat? It was an anomaly. In the morning they would get up and resume their separate roles as enemies. They would have to fight each other. He would have to hunt down Dark, and figure out how to get inside that mirror, and even dive to the bottom of the ocean if that was what it took to find the mirror in the first place. But for now it was ok.

Someone loved him because he was Daisuke Niwa.

Not because he was Dark.

He would not be eclipsed. He would not become a silhouette.


	8. Shifting

Sorry this took so long again. Life is hectic at the moment. I'll make it up by updating a lot in a very short period of time, which is what I do best.

* * *

He could have sworn that he'd just been dreaming.

When had he fallen asleep? Oh, right, after showering the night before. That made sense. He'd been on the boat coming to the island, and then he and Dark had come to the hotel and… well, there was a blank after that.

But he knew that he'd showered at least. He rolled over; his arm hit pillow.

This, really, should not have been so odd. He was, after all, sleeping, and normally he slept in a bed. But this was odd for two reasons: the motion woke him up, and he realized he felt curiously empty inside. And secondly, his bed was a single. This was definitely larger. He curled his knees up to his chest, opened his eyes, and sat up, clenching the bedsheets in both fists.

He was in Satoshi's room. _Shit! What did I do!_ Panic rose in his throat like bile, eyes open as wide as they would go. _No! I did **not** sleep with Satoshi!_ But even as he denied it, he knew it was true. He had the distinct memories to prove it. This made his cheeks brighten.

Satoshi was nowhere to be seen. The door to the bathroom was ajar, and there was a towel hanging on the shower rack—he'd put that towel there the night before. His clothes were strewn right next to the bed and were still sopping wet and slightly salty ocean-smelling from being in a pile, where he'd left them shortly before climbing into bed with Satoshi with only his boxers on. Yes, now he recalled. He shivered; it was cold in the room, probably to combat the searing island heat outside.

Today was a leisure day for the class, so he wasn't in any hurry to leave. Music drifted in from a radio somewhere: Chopan's Valse, he thought, but he wasn't sure. His knowledge of classical music was sparse at best. He shifted off the bed and picked up his jeans. Nope. Soaked through.

On the bedside table was a pair of jeans and a plain white tee-shirt. No note, no sign that these had been laid out for him, but he knew. He knew Satoshi meant him to take them as clearly as if there had been a note. So he did, and left his own out to dry on the side of the tub. Well, Satoshi's clothes weren't large on him; they were actually about the same size, which just made it more convenient.

After one last glance in the mirror he sighed and went to the door. It was locked from both sides. He punched in a few keys, watched the light shift from red to green, and swung open the door slowly, a small creak resounding as he looked into the hallway like a convict escaping from a cell.

_Okay. I should be free if I just make it down to the lobby, and I can pretend like I was out last night and I didn't get back unti_---"HEY! DAISUKE!"

Takeshi. He bounded up and narrowed his eyes at Daisuke. "I can't believe you'd do something like that with Satoshi!" he said, looking up at the room number. Daisuke froze. "Look, it's not what it looks like…" he started, then cleared his throat.

"I worked hard to get you into all-night mahjong, okay? You better damn play tomorrow night instead of playin' card games or whatever with Satoshi or I'll have your ass on a plate… I had to pay Sakehara to get us in!"

Daisuke had forgotten to breathe. Now he did. Thank God for Takeshi's dense-headedness. "Yeah, I will. Sure," he said, grabbing the side of the door and edging his way towards the stairs. "You'd better. I'm not kidding about the ass on a plate," Takeshi replied, giving Satoshi's door a last malignant look. With that distraction, Daisuke made a beeline for the staircase and disappeared down to the lobby.

* * *

He met Risa at the phone. Gladly, she didn't seem to recognize him. During the day he looked for Wiz, to no avail; the little creature couldn't be found anywhere. Maybe he was still healing from being flung about the night before. He slumped down into part of the hallway on the top floor, away from any other students, and looked out the window on the opposite wall with a wistful glance.

**_I've gotta get Dark back_**.

He was afraid to be alone with the voices in his head. When Dark was there, he filled that gap, but without him the silence, the overwhelming emptiness, was almost overwhelming.

_**I don't even know where to start.**_

_Satoshi might know. _

_**I don't know where he is.**_

_So he screwed you and left?_

…

_If he actually loved you, he'd be here right now._

_**We're only highschoolers. Maybe he had something to do.**_

_Right. At least Dark paid you the courtesy of sticking around. You should've been more loyal to him. Your family would disown you if they knew what's happened. _

_Daisuke shivered more, and not just from the polar temperature in the hallway. Would his family really disown him? It was entirely possible. He remembered how Emiko had freaked out the first time she'd discovered he was friends with Satoshi._

_Friends… to this_. He chuckled darkly.

_**Dark doesn't care. He just wants me to obey him, to worship him like everyone else. He wants ultimate control of my mind. Then he can use me as his physical body. That's what he wants—a body.** _

_But you do worship him. You can't stop thinking about him, can you?_

_**Maybe I do. But I don't love him. Adoration and love…**_

…_Are different things? Or different faces of the same coin?_

_**I don't love him.**_

_You don't have a choice. Love Dark or be disowned. _

He bowed his head, as if in prayer, and tried not to just curl up and die.

* * *

"…Daisuke…?" the voice was young, tentative. He lifted his head from his bout of misery and rose his eyes to the speaker: Riku. "Oh. Hey there, Riku," he said with a tired smile.  
"Umm. Were you with Risa last night?" she asked, sinking down next to him.

"Last night…?" he was tempted to say, sure. She grabbed me around the waist because she thought I was Dark. But of course he didn't. "Nope. Sorry."

She watched him silently. It was disconcerting. "What?" he asked after a second.

"I saw you down there," she said. "Risa thinks it was Dark."

"Stranger things have happened," he said, and smiled. He was good at acting, and very good at pretending to feel what he didn't. "It could've been Dark down there."

"So it wasn't you she… hugged? You weren't down there?" Riku asked. She didn't look convinced at all. Daisuke shrugged. "No. I was sleeping. Ask Takeshi." He knew she wouldn't. Takeshi was weird, and nobody would try talking to him except Daisuke of their own free will, which was perfect. He crossed his legs, straight out so they jutted into the center of the hallway. Riku was kneeling at his side, her eyes very wide and blank.

"Daisuke? Why did you run away… that other day?"

He didn't turn to look at her. "I'm sorry."

"You said that. I wanna know why. Are you afraid of me or something?"

_I'm afraid to get close to anyone. I'm afraid that Dark will be angry._

"No."

"So do you wanna try again, maybe? I mean, if we're going out and stuff, maybe we should do something."

He turned his gaze onto her. "What do you want from me, Riku?"

She bit her lower lip, casting her eyes down to where his hand was braced against the floor. She raised her own hand and then set it down on top of his lightly, her eyes very close to his own face. He leaned back subconsciously. "I just want to make sure you're real," she said in a dead even voice.

He blinked. "I don't know," he said. "What d'you mean?" His body, all by itself, began to react to her presence. His pants felt a little too small. Satoshi's pants, actually.

"I-I mean, you were talking with Risa before, and I know you've been seeing her outside of school too, sometimes, and I know you went with her to try and see Dark that one time. And you used to taste her cooking and stuff. I mean, you've never wanted to do that for me, so I…"

He blinked again. "You want me to taste your cooking?" Wow, she was close. He swallowed to keep the lump out of his throat. _Cherry lip gloss—gah, don't think of that!_

"No! Guys are so dense!" she fumed. "I want you to be my boyfriend, okay?"

He paused, looked down at her hand on top of his, and then looked back at her face. She leaned in, still biting her lower lip in that irresistible way, and pressed her lips to his own, her mouth trembling slightly. She was very light and lithe in his lap, nothing more than a small and very fragile female. But she was still female.

And Daisuke, in his poor and muddled state of mind, kissed her back.

"_You really are beautiful."  
_  
He thought that he caught a flash of pale, silvery hair off the side of the hallway, around the corner. But then it was gone. Had Satoshi been there? Riku put one hand on his upper thigh and the other on his cheek, her eyes round and frightened and timid. She'd never done this before. "Is that okay?" she asked.

Daisuke looked at her for a long time. That one kiss had made his entire brain glaze over in a haze of physical need, and now he was a creature of habit. "Yes," he found himself saying, and kissed her again. They didn't pull away for hours.

* * *

"I need to find Wiz," he said to himself later. He was in the bathroom of his hotel room, scrubbing his face roughly with cold water to try and wake himself up. His mind was focused on only one objective at the moment and that was getting into Riku's pants. He had to stay focused, he reminded himself. Dark was in that mirror, and the mirror could be anywhere. Even in the middle of the ocean. If he had to dive for it, he would. He could probably get the stuff to dive down… well, a wetsuit might be hard, but he didn't need one, and an oxygen tank? Maybe he could buy one.

Takeshi stormed into the room and flopped onto the bed. "Can you believe Mayuri took her name off the mahjong list for tonight? Jesus fuckin' Christ, man. Now we don't have any chicks playing. What's the point? You're still playing though, right?" he pointed at Daisuke incriminatingly. Daisuke set down the towel and walked back into the room. "Yeah. Just let me get changed."

"Where'd you get those jeans, man? Those're, like, three hundred dollar jeans."

"…Uh… they were a present," Daisuke said. Shit. Why hadn't he changed sooner?

"Oh, okay." Takeshi was pacified. Daisuke shrugged coarsely and switched out Satoshi's jeans and shirt for one of his own, then set the old clothes on his bed. He'd have to return them later. Takeshi suddenly took hold of Daisuke's bed by the footboard and began dragging it, withDaisuke still on it: "c'mon, man, get off. We need to move this."

"Wait! It's now?" Daisuke protested. He needed to go look for Wiz. Why had he spent the afternoon in self pity? He hadn't even managed to steal the Towa no Shirube yet. If his mother called to check up in him tonight…

"Yes, it's now, retard. And it lasts 'till dawn, so you can sleep tomorrow." Takeshi would have none of it, and bodily shoved him into a chair, making him stay put while he personally hunted down the rest of the guys and forced them into their small room. Soon twenty four of the fourty boys in the freshman class were crowded around Daisuke's bed, pulled out into the center of the room to make a kind of rudimentary card table.

With a chorus of shouts and laughter, the game commenced. It was something of a tournament, so there were five boards going at once, and it was chaos.

He was horrible at mahjong.

Of course, they figured this out as soon as the game began, and everyone began groaning when it was his move.

Twenty minutes later, at approximately eight-oh-seven, Takeshi dragged him back out of his seat. "C'mon, man! You didn't tell me you sucked at mahjong! If you're that bad, don't play!"  
Daisuke grinned sheepishly. "Hey, I told you I didn't want to play."

"Well, you're beyond bad. Should we kick him out?" This second part was addressed to the rest of the guys, who all gave loud shouts of approval. Takeshi wagged his eyebrows: "Sorry, man. Majority wins." Daisuke found himself outside the room, a door being shut in his face.

He laughed. The day had just been so absurd. He'd gotten kicked out of a mahjong game, for crying out loud. How often did that happen?

_Well, I might as well return those clothes to Satoshi, I guess,_ he said, though even thinking this made his entire heart twitch spasmically. Ba-bump. Ba-bump. _I told him I loved him, I think. I wonder if I freaked him out. Maybe…_ He was about to think that maybe Satoshi had only wanted him for sex. Just like Dark. Maybe he only wanted to control Daisuke. But he wouldn't let himself think that, and just pushed everything out of his mind.

He remained in this mindless state until he found himself outside Satoshi's door. It hadn't taken nerve to make himself get there when his mind was empty. He raised his hand and knocked three times.

Seven seconds after the third knock, Satoshi answered. "Yes?" The door was only cracked open, barely a sliver. He couldn't even see Satoshi's face.  
"Uh. It's me. I'm just…well, your clothes…" he looked down at the bundle in his arms, and back up, swallowing nervously. His anxiousness was wasted, however. The door immediately swung open, and Satoshi stood there, an impenetrable expression on his face.

"Sorry," Daisuke said, though he didn't know why, and held out the clothes to Satoshi. Hadn't he done this before somewhere?

"You're not in the mahjong game?" Satoshi asked, his voice quiet.

"No. They… uh, kicked me out. I'm horrible at mahjong."

Satoshi's mouth flickered in a smile. "And they're playing in _your _room?"

"Yeah." Daisuke shrugged, still holding out the clothes. Satoshi took them and then eyed him up and down before replying: "Where are you staying?"

"…The hallway, I guess," said Daisuke. "I mean, maybe I can find someone to mooch off. Or steal someone else's room for the night if they're gonna be out until dawn. It's no big deal."

"Come on in for a second."

Daisuke looked both ways down the hallway. It was clear. Well, obviously; everyone was in their own rooms or playing the game. Nobody cared where Daisuke Niwa went in his spare time. That was good. He slipped into the room and shut the door behind himself, not giving Satoshi the opportunity this time. "Is something wrong?" Satoshi asked, turning his back and walking over to the armoire to slide the folded clothing in. "I'll imagine you… have questions."

Daisuke shifted nervously from foot to foot, and after a moment, moved into the room, then sagged against the footboard of the bed as if he was immensely tired. And in ways, he was. He was being stretched too thin these days, it felt, and this was just one more thing to add to the chaos that was his life.

"I have to find Dark tomorrow."

Satoshi went to the bedside table and opened the drawer there, beginning to fumble around inside for something. "I know." His voice sounded slightly rough, as if maybe he were concealing its true emotion. "And I expect he'll be angry."

"Is that why you left this morning? You thought you'd gone too far?"

Satoshi shrugged indifferently. "I don't want you to get hurt. I think I've made a mistake, pushing this on you."

Daisuke felt his face changing, falling. He was disappointed. The voices in his head had been right. "You didn't _push _anything on me. I mean… I've felt this way for a while… but I didn't really know what it was, I mean. Satoshi, I felt more clear-headed than I've ever felt last night. I mean, I felt like maybe I was a person for once." He was hurt, and it showed in his voice. _He doesn't care, maybe. Maybe this is just one more way to weaken you so he can finally capture Dark once and for all._

"Daisuke, you don't know what you want." Satoshi stopped his looking in the drawer. He hadn't found what he wanted. He moved to the other side of the room where there was a cabinet. "We're nothing more than pawns. That's what I forgot last night, when I let all this get to my head. We're Tamers, and as long as we're Tamers, we're nothing more than puppets for our inner demons to control. I can't let myself be controlled."

Daisuke watched him tense up at the shoulders. "So you want to forget everything." He felt as if the inside of his stomach was dropping away, down three flights to the sand on the beach below.

"No!" Satoshi said, his voice rising. "No, I don't, but I don't want you to get _hurt, damnit. _I don't know anything about this kind of… this… love… shit. I don't know _how _to love you, Daisuke." His carefully gathered mask was slipping.

"Satoshi."

The mask slipped a little more. "No. Krad will awaken again, Daisuke. He… he and Dark are… Krad's sick, Daisuke. He's not acting the way a normal phantom thief should. He doesn't act like Dark. He is… sick in the head. Mentally insane. I don't know what he'll do to you if I can't control him again!"

"Satoshi."

"What?" he shot, his arm withdrawn from the drawer, fists clenched as he looked at Daisuke sitting down by the footboard. "I am sorry, Daisuke, that I did this to you. My head is not as it should be."

Daisuke rose, leaned on the footboard. "What are you afraid of, Satoshi? Dark, or me?"

Satoshi stopped cold.

Daisuke kept his eyes on Satoshi. "If you're afraid of Dark, then I don't blame you, 'cause I don't know what he'll do when I get him back. But I don't know why you'd be afraid of me."

He turned his profile to Daisuke. "I let you in. You could hurt me."

Daisuke wasn't sure what this was supposed to mean. "I won't hurt you, Satoshi. I'm not gonna, okay? I swear. I just…" he put a hand up to his head. He really, really wanted to put his hands on Satoshi right now. The physical urge was overwhelming. "…I'm in love with you, and I don't know what to do." He shifted so that he was sort of next to Satoshi, a hand tentatively reaching out as if he were going to take his arm. But he didn't quite dare.

"I can't cure you, Daisuke."

"I don't need to be cured. I'll settle for happiness.."

"Dark hurts you. I can see it. I'd give anything if you could get free of this… this curse, but as long as our families hate each other, there's no hope. I can't free you of Dark. Only Riku can do that."

"Riku is just a girl," Daisuke said flatly. He didn't know where he was drawing the courage from to be so bold. But he felt like, maybe, if he didn't say this now, then he'd never get to say it. He'd felt like such a different person last night. Maybe now that person was gone again? Maybe he was being re-eclipsed?

He pressed his lips to Satoshi, feeling the face unchanging underneath him. As stonily impassive as the day he'd met him. "You should be kissing _Riku,_" Satoshi said against his mouth, but one hand snaked its way around his shoulders. Daisuke folded into an embrace, his head pressed to Satoshi's left shoulder for a moment before he raised it. "So you saw… us…?" he asked. _Satoshi was there. He saw everything. That flash of silver I saw… _

"I'm not right for you, Daisuke. I can't feel, don't you get it? If I let myself feel anything, Krad will destroy it. He'll destroy you. I won't be able to stop him."

They looked at each other for a second, limbs wrapped around each other. Satoshi was, for such a cold person, extremely _warm. _Almost ethereal or something. How could one person emanate such heat? Daisuke slid his handthrough the glinting, tantalizingly soft hair on the back of Satoshi' head, and this simple movement proved too much. Satoshi suddenly seized Daisuke's mouth in a fiery kiss, like an addict with a syringe. The relief was instantaneous and widespread, osmosing through every fiber.

_We're in this together._

Dark and bittersweet and absolutely without a doubt amazing. Red wine and honey, that's what it was. Oddest combination; but it was so good he couldn't keep control of his own body, and they melded like two halves.

Suddenly Satoshi broke free, shoved Daisuke away from him, and stumbled back. "Get away from me," he said, showing teeth as he grimaced painfully. His ice-blue eyes were wide open, the pupils dilated, his shirt collar crooked and open. He looked sexy with his hair mussed like that.

"What? Wait, what was that ab—"

"Get _out of here. _Now."

Daisuke's jaw dropped open slightly, shock coursing through him.

"GET OUT!" he shouted, almost frantic. His wide eyes began to shift, the irises molting into black and then to gold, a deep amberish gold that was speckled with white and black. Feeling hard wood at his back, Daisuke realized he was pressed against the door, and he pressed the save-all code frantically, his mind hazing over. He tripped, a rare thing, and fell out the door, which slammed behind him, the lock clicking into place.

And he was out in the hallway and wanting to die and what the hell had happened?

The door would not open. Something was holding it closed, and it wasn't a physical force at all. He wanted to believe that maybe Satoshi needed help, maybe he'd just pushed him away because Krad was trying to take over. But maybe, a voice said in the back of his head, he'd done it because he really _had _made an error in judgement.

_I told you, _said that voice. _I told you he was just like Dark. Nobody would care about you. Dark's famous. You're nothing._

He saw shadows on the ceiling as he stared up at it that night, sitting by the window on the fifth floor. Nobody was up there but him. Nobody would be up there for a long time. Good. He wanted to think. He could see shadows creeping in through the window, forming on the panes, dancing and flickering in slow, shifting patterns, exotic and different and strange. They were so different from the light of the day. Shadows were a thing he would never understand. Were they substances of their own, or were they merely the absence of light? Why were people so afraid of the dark? It was just blackness, it wasn't like there was anything there.

No, his thoughts made no sense. He wondered what was happening in Satoshi' room. He wondered if Krad had gotten out yet.

He slept curled against the wall, with the AC whirring softly in his ear.


	9. The Witching Hours

Poor little Daisuke. I feel so bad for him after reading this over. Buuuuut. It needed to happen! This is, after all, an angst-fic, is it not?

Enjoy. Hope it keeps you on edge.

Some things are different from the book. Deal with it; there were parts I didn't feel like writing out or putting in because I just don't like them, or they don't have a place later on in thefic and so needn't be written.

* * *

"Daisuke! Where are you go-ing?" Risa shouted after him, but he didn't pay her any more attention. She probably wanted him to go try and track down Dark with her, or something stupid like that, and he wasn't in the mood. He felt like he was curdling on the inside.

Satoshi didn't care about him. So nothing mattered. Life, despite his current problems, continued to go on. The earth kept revolving. He had dark patches under his eyes from sleeping against the wall in a freezing cold hallway, but aside from that he looked more normal than he felt.

"Wiz," Daisuke whispered, when he was sure he was safely into the forest near the hotel room. He'd been lying in the sun this morning when it had risen, hot and bright yellow, to shine into the window on the fifth floor hallway. As such his skin was mildly darkened, but not enough to be considered a real tan. Would he never get free time?

"Wiz! Nnh," Daisuke muttered, pressing a hand to his forehead and lifting the bangs up there. His head hurt again. "Where are you?" He didn't want to talk too loudly, in case someone overheard him, but he wanted to be heard. The fuzzy little creature must have been nearby, because there was a crash of branches and then it leapt into his arms, a soft _whumph _and a noise that sounded like an incredibly happy squeak.

"God, I missed you," Daisuke said, scratching it behind the ears fondly. It made more cooing noises, and after a moment pressed a rough pink tongue to his face. He couldn't help but laugh; Wiz had been their family pet for as long as he could remember, and besides having his more obvious uses he could almost always cheer Daisuke up for a moment or two. Before he remembered and his mood fell again. "Where were you yesterday? I was looking all over for you."

He didn't expect a reply, so when Wiz gave a startled squeak he looked over one shoulder. There, in the midst of the clearing, was Satoshi.

Neither of them spoke for a very long time, but when Wiz finally wiggled out of Daisuke's arms and hopped to the ground, squeaking at the silver-haired boy in a _go away _manner. Daisuke snapped his fingers at Wiz: "Sh, Wiz." And then to Satoshi: "I never thanked you for taking care of me two nights ago. And for… ah, bandaging my arm." This was said remotely, as if he didn't really care what Satoshi was doing in the clearing. He thought he did a good job making himself seem uncaring. He held up his arm; though he'd changed the bandages, he was making sure to keep it under a longsleeved shirt most of the time so as to avoid questions. Right now he was dressed in a black shirt with a blue zigzag across the front, and jeans that were so overused and loved that the cuffs at the bottom were starting to wear and tear. There was a gash in the fabric over one knee. His faded sneakers were on underneath, and they crunched in the underbrush as he made a move towards the hotel.

"Daisuke. Wait."

He paused. "What?" He was still feeling _slightly _hurt at being scorned like that. He'd opened himself up raw, and now that Satoshi didn't seem to want to actually pursue anything more, it seemed useless to try and be friendly. But Satoshi surprised him by grabbing ahold of his wrist. He turned around so that his wrist was in front of him now, and so was Satoshi. There was such a look of pain in his eyes that he looked like a fragile creature, as if Daisuke might touch him and break him in two.

His heart stuttered. Was Satoshi going to apologize, and tell him he'd been mistaken? Was he going to sweep him into his arms and say what he'd said before? If Dark was here, and this was anyone other than Satoshi, he would have said Daisuke was acting like a lovestruck little kid. Maybe he was.

"The dock," Satoshi said finally. "Go down to the dock. You'll find Dark there." His hopes shattered. No, just advice. No confessions.

"Why are you helping me? I thought you were afraid of me," Daisuke snapped.

The look of hurt in Satoshi's eyes deepened. His mouth hardened, lowered, and he suddenly pressed forward, slamming Daisuke against a nearby tree trunk. His forearm was shoved into Daisuke's throat, and his other hand pinned the boy's wrist against the bark. His head came closer, and then his mouth was right against Daisuke's cheek, his eyes glinting. "_I told you before. I could get _rid _of my curse, and Dark, just like _this_. I could capture you. But I don't _want to hurt_ you. Now get out of here before I lose it again."_

Daisuke winced as Satoshi removed his weight—he was surprisingly strong—and straightened. Wiz snarled from behind him, and he looked down to the little creature, then back to Satoshi.

"I'm sorry for what I put you through," Satoshi said, like it hurt to talk. "Now go."

He did as he was told.

* * *

"There's nothing here," he told Wiz sullenly. Was it possible Satoshi had set some kind of trap--? No, no. If he wanted to help him, he would have meant to do so. He wasn't the kind to lie about his motives so passionately. So there must be something here, right?

No, nothing. The waves, the gulls, the calm shore breaking and lapsing and breaking again. It was beautiful; the water was turquoise-blue, and the sky was such a deep shade of azure as the bright sun beat down that all he could think about was taking off all his clothes and just leaping into the water. But he had a mission; he couldn't give up now!

"Looking for something?"

He stiffened his back and turned around quickly, thinking it was a classmate. But when he found himself backed against the guard railing, it turned out only to be a woman. And a rather beautiful one at that. She had short, curly hair and enormous eyes, and her rather revealing garments swirled around her narrow waist and hips.

He gawked. She gave a little _hmph: _"Looking… for… something?" she repeated, as if maybe he was mentally retarded and needed a second run-through. But he'd heard her perfectly; he just didn't know how she'd gotten there. Unless…

"Are you an artwork?" he asked timidly.

"Yup! That's me. The Towa no Shirube! But call me To-to, 'cause I feel _so _old otherwise, love." She beamed widely, revealing perfect white teeth. "Now what're you lookin' for? Finding things is what I'm good at, you know!"

"I'm looking for you," Daisuke replied miserably. "I'm sorry. You might not like it, but I have to take you with me."

"Ooo—ooh!" she cooed, rising into the air about a foot. Daisuke looked around quickly to make sure none of the other students were around; none were. "That would be so, so, so, so great! You _know, _I just hate being here. It's so _boring. _But you see, I've got something you might need first, so we can trade."

She flourished one arm into the air. Her hand glinted. No, not the hand. Something in her hand… _was that really what it looked like_?

A mirror! Yes, thank God! It was really Dark's mirror. Daisuke made a sweep for it instinctively, but she held it just out of reach, giggling coquettishly. "You've gotta promise me first, 'kay? I'm not gonna just give it to you, love! That'd be way too easy!"

"I've told you I will, haven't I? We'll take good care of you," Daisuke assured. Despite his mood before, he was now feeling slightly more chipper. He was going to get Dark back! His family would be proud of him if they were here. Doing all this by himself. Even if he hated Dark, it was all-right so long as he had their approval.

Even though he knew what would happen when he found him.

"Whoa there!" she shouted as she handed it over and he immediately made to try and stick his hand into the dark, oily surface. She snatched it back almost instantly. 'You can't just go in there, love! You need a bit of magic guidance or you could get lost forever. You're only mortal, you know, right now."

"Well, then I need you with me," Daisuke reasoned. "Please?"

She seemed to go into a wide-eyed daze where she was clasping her hands together. "You… are… so… cute!" she squealed. And then suddenly her face tightened again: "I mean.. er, of course, love. But just one way. You've got to get out by yourself, because I'm not quite strong enough to do that, all-right?"

"Fine," he said passively. _Just let me get Dark back in one piece._

He didn't remember what she said after that. A lot of jibberish about the laws of magic and how he'd need to get out again. After about ten minutes of talking she seemed to give into the idea and in a whirl of energy collapsed herself, then Daisuke, into tiny spinning fragments. He had experienced this sort of form when he was dormant inside Dark, so it really was not very odd for him.

She sent them into the mirror. And there was darkness.

* * *

Six hours later he tumbled out of the mirror and straight into the ocean itself, soaked to the bone once more and covered in black otherworld sludge. They had tracked Dark through the mirror-world, and had had to spend hours in there before they'd collected all of his spare memories, lost amongst the fragments of the world itself. It hadn't been very hard, but there had been some near passes with death when To-To had started to lose energy; they'd made it out just fine, though. "I can't believe you made me come after you," Daisuke said angrily, kicking and spluttering his way to the surface. Treading water was no problem for him; he was an excellent swimmer, and shortly began stroking his way to the shore.

_It took you long enough, idiot. You only had to find a few memories._

Daisuke cringed. Memories! Dark would figure out soon enough what had happened while he was away. He was bound to. He decided not to push Dark anymore and just sighed, pushing harder and with his free hand shoving the mirror into his shirt. The Towa no Shirube was back on the dock, panting her little heart out in the shape of a small bird. Wiz was there, too, but he seemed to be asleep, or nearly so.

"I didn't take long! If you hadn't gotten sucked into that stupid mirror in the first place, we'd never have had to do this!" Daisuke argued. He continued swimming and fighting to stay above whitecapped waves, looking into the dark water below with glazed eyes. _So here's where Satoshi and I fought a couple of days ago. Guess it's already been that long._

_What did you do while I was gone, anyways? Didn't get into trouble, did you? _Dark gave the mental equivalent of wagging a patronizing finger at Daisuke, who twitched, but didn't reply. He was too busy trying to stay afloat now, as he was getting closer to shore and the waves were getting bigger. Eventually he tumbled onto the beach with an exceptionally large wave and crashing onto the sand in a heap.

"I didn't do anything," Daisuke said defensively, hoping Dark would leave it at that. Though he knew that the phantom thief would be likely to go over his memories out of sheer boredom if nothing else. He often caught Dark flicking through event after event that he found particularly entertaining. Having his mind ransacked like this was invasive and irritating, but there wasn't anything he could do; Dark was a three hundred year old spirit and Daisuke was a teenager.

He clambered higher up on the shore and forced himself to stand up, coughing up water and then shaking out his clothing so that it was remotely drier, but still sopping wet. He wouldn't catch cold out here, because it was pretty warm already. But he should really head for cover. He made for the forest and the treeline, his headache diminishing with each step. Dark had filled that empty place inside him, as much as he hated it. He no longer felt like half a person.

_See? You're not whole without me, kid._

"Shut up," Daisuke growled. "Only did this… because… mom…" he said between jerks as he shook sand off both his tennis shoes. They were probably ruined. He had another backup pair, but he'd _liked _these shoes, damnitall. He brushed brambles aside and looked for the central path, and found it soon enough. He came out in the center clearing where he'd met Satoshi that morning.

"Guess this is in the middle," Daisuke said out loud, and looked back towards the direction he imagined the hotel was in. "I hope I'm not lost."

_Hah! Right. You never get lost. _

"But I do get sidetracked," Daisuke mused absently.

There was a crackle in the tree above him, and Daisuke looked up just as Riku fell clear out of it. His arms came out, her weight came down, and he didn't stagger beneath her. She was too light for that. She looked like she was half asleep, and at being caught in mid-air she opened her eyes very wide. "Daisuke! What're you doing out here?"

"Taking a night hike," he said fluidly. "What are you doing in a tree?"

_Stalking you, _Dark snickered.

"I… ah… got lost," she said sheepishly, and all of a sudden realized she was still in Daisuke's arms, being clasped to his chest. He was developing muscles. He wasn't a little kid anymore, that was for sure, and she hastily rolled over out of his arms and onto her own two feet. "But you're here! You doof, I can't believe you caught me." She laid a finger on her chin thoughtfully, looking heavenward.

"Eheh. Just luck, I guess," Daisuke managed.

_You want to fuck her right here, don't you? _Dark asked with silent mirth. _Go ahead, I'll leave you alone for now. Your reward for getting me out of that stupid mirror._

"How kind of you," Daisuke muttered.

"What?"

"Nothing. Do you want to come back to the hotel with me, Riku?"

She smiled. "Well… we could stay here, maybe, if you don't mind. It's pretty out tonight, isn't it?" she looked up at the sky where the pale moon was showing through the treetops. Daisuke nodded. It was, actually, quite serene. If he hadn't just scraped his way out of death then he might have been more inclined to be at ease. She nudged forward and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pressing her cheek to his chest. "Ummm, you're… " she began, and breathed in. And suddenly stopped: "Eww! You're all wet! You're freezing, Daisuke!"

He chuckled. "Sorry. I fell in."

"Klutz." She bent her nose towards him, her face pressed very close, but Daisuke felt himself warming _down there _and now that Dark was around he didn't want him to see this. No matter what the thief had said, he knew Dark would personally grudge him for it if he did, in fact, start getting physical with Riku. So he tilted his head a little and planted a kiss—just a little one--- on Riku's temple.

She looked up at him. "Daisuke… you don't think I'm a copy of Risa, do you?" she whispered in a very tiny, timid voice.

He smiled, shook his head. But the grin dropped off his face as soon as it appeared; images of Satoshi were flying through his mind, one after the other. _God, I wish she was him—no! _He shattered those ideas before Dark could get a glimpse of them. But now he'd made the phantom thief suspicious. He tried not to imagine her hands were Satoshi's, tried not to imagine her dark eyes were molding into an icy-blue color.

"The girl I love is you, Riku," he said. He didn't mean it, but he said it all the same. Because in that moment whether or not he liked it he had come to a choice.

_I can never break my curse if I'm in love with Satoshi. Not ever. I have to focus on Riku._

"I love you so much, Daisuke," she said, and began to cry. He recoiled almost instantly. "Hey! No, don't cry! Why're you crying, Riku?"

"I don't know. I'm sorry," she said, and laughed, wiping away small tears. Almost in an instant they were gone, and Daisuke let out a long breath. _Girls are so weird._

* * *

Now they were at the hotel room and he was dry again, thankfully. He hated himself for what he had told Riku, because it wasn't true. But then he was also proud of himself; in a martyr-like way he was giving up what he wanted, which was Satoshi. But Satoshi didn't feel the same way, or did a damn good job of hiding it, so whatever had happened that one night he might as well pretend had never happened.

Dark had been silent this entire trip back. Eerily so.

"Dark," Daisuke said when he was alone in his room. Takeshi was off at another all-night mahjong game, this time in another classmates' room, so he didn't have to worry about making too much noise. "There's… something… I have to tell you."

He would have to tell Dark sometime. Otherwise he ran the risk of Dark figuring it out for himself, and thinking Daisuke had been hiding it, which was much worse. He needed to get this off his chest now before that happened. Dark rumbled inside of him. _Oh, that so? Like what, Dai? Finally decided to give up fighting me?_

"No," Daisuke said.

…_Then what?_

Dark was uneasy, an emotion that he almost never had.

"Something happened while you were gone." He clutched his fists in his lap as he sat on the edge of the bed, trying to keep his cool. He couldn't afford to lose it right now.

_Daisuke. What is it? For fuck's sake, you're scaring me._

"You remember when Krad appeared, right?" he began. Dark glimmered anxiously, but agreed that he did remember. "And then after that when you got sucked into that mirror thingy. You remember that, don't you?"

Again he remembered. Okay. So far, so good.

"Well, I kind of collapsed after that. When I woke up, I was in Satoshi's room, and he was taking care of me."

A sudden chill ran through him, and he knew it was Dark's doing. The thief had gone complete and totally rigid.

"We sort of… did some things. I know he's an enemy of the Niwas, and Krad's your rival, and that you think he's dangerous, but DarkI_love_himandIcouldn'thelpmyselfI'mreallyreallysorrypleasedon'tdoanything!" he slammed his eyes shut, waited, every nerve on edge.

Five seconds.

Ten.

_You…_

_You and the Hikari boy… really… did…_

_The second I was gone, you ran straight to him, didn't you? It doesn't matter that you're breaking years of tradition, of sanctity and power, so long as you thought you were in 'love' with that little… that little… _And then he said something in a foreign language. Maybe it was Latin. It sure didn't sound Japanese to Daisuke. He didn't dare move.

He could feel Dark's anger glowing as the thief manifested next to him, easily towering over him from this standing position, with Daisuke sitting on the bedside. His amethyst eyes burned into his face, his already pale skin turning a deathlike white, so he looked more like an unearthly ghost than an actual flesh-and-blood being.

"Dark, you don't get it, I just didn't know what I was doing!" Daisuke stammered.

"I get it," Dark said, "But I don't accept it."

"It was just once! Please don't do anything! Why—"

"BECAUSE YOU BELONG TO ME!" he shouted. A mirror on the wall fell off and shattered on a table below it, but it was only a small mirror and so there was only a mild tinkling of glass shards. The lamps in the room flickered and shone brighter and dimmed and then went out entirely. Everything was dark.

Now Daisuke was angry. "I'm not some… some _thing!_" he shrieked right back. "He treated me differently! He treated me like a person! Not like you… you're… you're insane, you sick freak! _I hate you!_"

"YOU ARE ME! YOU'RE NOTHING WITHOUT ME!"

"_No! _" he said, and was suddenly interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Excuse me! Niwa and Saehara, is everything all-right in there?" It was Ichigo, their class president. A right proper girl, and she was knocking on the door. "I heard shouting, and something breaking. Do you want me to get a—"

He was at the door in a moment. "No, it's fine, we're just playing cards… sorry, we'll pick everything up," he said without opening the door.

She gave a snobbish little sniff. "Well! Don't break anything more or you'll be paying for it! This hotel isn't free, you know! The student union had to earn _all _the money for this tri—"

"Ichigo! We'll handle it, just leave us alone!" he said through the door. She gave another sniff and went off, mumbling something under her breath. Daisuke sagged against the door, his head leaning against the wood. In the heat of the moment he had almost forgotten Dark was there. But Dark hadn't forgotten anything from the previous minute.

He felt his head jerked sharply back by a hand grabbing his hair. He cried out with pain as he was dragged across the room and tossed roughly on the bed via an arm around his neck and upper arm. And suddenly he felt without a doubt that something horrible was going to happen. It was a premonition, like the sort of feeling one gets when the phone rings in the middle of the night.

"You need to learn," Dark was saying through gritted teeth, which were actually very pointy when one cared to look. "You need to learn that you… are… mine!" With each last word he tore at Daisuke's shirt until it ripped down the center. It was a t-shirt, and clearly _not _meant to be handled so roughly, and in a second nothing was left but shreds. "Dark! Please, please, no, listen, we can work it out! _I'm sorry!_" Daisuke was begging, trying everything to squirm his way out of the situation.

Dark, however, paid absolutely no attention. "You're a mortal, nothing! You'll be dead in a few years! _I'm the fuckin' phantom thief! _You _have _to love me! YOU HAVE TO!" He was literally over the brink of insanity. Daisuke was afraid of what he would do right now.

He finished with stripping the shirt into tiny segments and settled his weight straddling Daisuke's chest as he began working his hands through the strips, tying them to make… some kind of ropes or something…

_Oh my God._

Dark had never actually forced him before, not like this. Sure he'd been pretty up front about sex, but he'd never _made _Daisuke go through with it. Daisuke had always given in or caved in the end. But for this… this was a different type, this was something horrible. "Dark, please, God, listen to me! Dark… come back!" he didn't' know why he was saying _come back, _except that Dark had this look in his eyes as if he were really a lunatic.

His wrists were each tied separately to a post of the bed, and his ankles followed soon after. He wasn't aware when he began sobbing quietly, but he knew he was doing it, and that his face was wet. "Dark, why are you doing this? Dark!"

"I have to make sure you don't move, because I'm going to make you love me," Dark said in a very singsong voice. Dark had no sympathy. He never had. He yanked down Daisuke's jeans and a few moments later was buried inside of him, his hands on the boy's waist, making deep red clawlike marks where his nails dug in.

Daisuke began to bleed from his stomach where the marks were too deep. His body wasn't used to handling Dark's length without any kind of preparation, and he began to bleed _there _too. This was a hideous nightmare. He'd never in a million years thought anything could be this bad, this dangerous, and feel so _real _at the same time.

Dark did not finish and did not come. He just thrusted over and over again, until Daisuke's sobs were so raw that his throat began to close and he had to stop altogether, making muted noises that a human shouldn't have been able to make. This was about power, determination, and control. It was not about love. It wasn't about feeling. It was about Dark trying to be mortal and failing every time, both hating and envying that which he could never achieve.

Thrust. _Pain. _Thrust. _Pain._

"I love you, I love you more than anything, and I had to do this to you, don't you get it? You deserved this!" Dark said, an insane smile lighting his face as his too-wide eyes bored into Daisuke's. He looked like a jester, a joker with a grimace of happiness like that. As he untied Daisuke's bonds he soothed Daisuke's shaking, smoothed down his hair with petting hands and told him everything would be all-right in a voice like silk.

"There's only me. I'm the only one for you, Daisuke. We'll only have each other, for all eternity, so there can never be anyone else for you but me. That's why I had to make you understand this. You brought it upon yourself by doing that with Hiwatari, but now you have to understand that I _did this for you." _He wrapped his arms around Daisuke and cradled him to his chest as if he was nothing more than a very small child.

Daisuke didn't think he could cry so much. He was so scared, so terrified. Abused, dirty, and naked, he sobbed soundlessly into Dark's shoulder where his head was being pressed, but all he could think of, _I'm trapped with a maniac. _

Who could he pray to? Christ? No, if Christ wanted to save him, then he would have done so. God likewise. There was nobody to pray to. He had given up on that. He did not beg, because begging implied the possibility of mercy, and now he knew that that didn't exist either.

"I had to do this… I had to do this… don't cry… you made me do this to you…" more petting. More soothing. "I love you, so it'll be all-right now. Just you and me forever. It'll be fun."

If he had been looking down at this little scene instead of being an actor on the stage of his life. Daisuke Niwa would have said that this was the worst thing that had ever happened to him. He would have said nothing could have been worse than this moment, when Dark had lost all reason, trying to tell him that he was in love with him.

He didn't know yet that the worst was still to come.


	10. Decem

Nooooo comment. But if my computer crashes one more time, I swear to Sweet Jesus there will be pain. Which will include me, violently kicking my monitor.

Thanks to all you who review. Yes,I know, I AM THANKING MY REVIEWERS. I don't really write to be reviewed; I write because I enjoy it. But the reviews do make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

* * *

He was startled awake by crashing into a rock wall. His spine made a _creak _noise, his head thwacked back and connected with stone, sending veins of pain through the back of his head, and there was a surge of bone-on-concrete as he reflected off it as easily as if he were made of rubber. He went flying off the wall and before he knew it he was plummeting towards the ground.

He landed easily, tucking in his knees and bringing his body around into a somersault, but as soon as he did his mind was hostilely invaded and he was forced to transform into Dark.

_Dark. _This wasn't a dream! Where was he!

_"No time! Just look!" _This was Dark, his thoughts frantic.

And then he looked up and through Dark's eyes, and realized that Krad was standing across from him as he stood on the bridge about a half-mile from the hotel, his eyes glimmering with building power. He looked remotely apathetic, as if this were nothing more than a show.

Krad had very long nails. He brought one now to his wrist and carefully carved a line down the vein, which began to trickle blood almost instantly.

"You see, our Tamers have had a bit of a… shall we say, connection?" Krad said. "_Your _Tamer seems to have caused my Satoshi to fall in love. I'm afraid I can't have that."

"I hate you. I hate your kind… Krad," Dark said, clenching his fists.

Krad lazily brought the wrist to his face, and an almost feline tongue came out and lapped at the blood. He was _enjoying _it. Daisuke recoiled, confused at the entire situation. _Dark took over my body… while I was sleeping? But what for? _

The answer came instantly. _To punish me. He wanted to kill Satoshi, I bet._

"Ah, my dear, I don't expect you to love me… even if you and I were once whole," Krad said liquidly. "But my Satoshi is, quite simply, my possession. I can't have what's mine running off and giving his love to someone else, can I?"

Dark didn't answer. But Daisuke could tell he had that look in his eye, the one that meant he was on the brink of explosion.

"And don't give me your piety. You're having trouble with yours, too."

"My Tamer loves me," Dark said coolly. "He's just a bit confused."

Daisuke didn't want to think about that. He hated Dark with every fiber of his being. He didn't want to be trapped in the same body any longer, not ever again, not for one second… Dark had taken over his body… Dark had tried to kill Satoshi, probably… What would he do now? He was intent on taking over Daisuke, body and soul.

"Confused!" Krad laughed. "You can't force him to love you, Dark. Only through fear, only through complete submission do you think you own him. You're so used to your Tamers practically falling at your feet with infatuation that you don't even know what do to with this one. And---correct me if I am wrong---I suspect that this is the first Tamer you're really in love with in return. Am I wrong?"

"Don't lecture me, Krad."

Just for a second, Krad's eyes widened. "I'll make you return to me someday, Dark. And then you'll learn a thing or two about respect."

Dark's eyes slid sideways. Daisuke saw his parents and grandfather perched on a landing above them, and his mother was clutching Riku protectively. Riku was unconscious. _Dark! What's happening? Why did you do this? Why, Dark? _

Dark didn't answer, because Krad threw a bolt of light at Dark, spitting some kind of curse. Dark tucked in his body and dodged, calling Wiz as he took off into the air. Over the next few minutes Dark was forced to move and move again as Krad chanted spell after spell. Daisuke could feel his energy waning as Dark drew from him over and over again, trying to counter the spells as quickly as possible.

Dark pressed in and threw himself, wings and all, at Krad's shoulder. The both of them went barreling off the rock, round and round through the air. Daisuke couldn't feel Dark's legs. His nerves were going dead. Pretty soon, he knew, the magic Dark was using to stave off Krad would get to him.

"Daisuke, try and handle this," Dark said in a low, cutting voice, before absorbing some of his energy to shoot a blast of fire at Krad. Daisuke felt like his insides were being sucked out of his body through a tube in his navel, and tried not to cry out in pain as the torment continued. But if just one attack, just one spell hurt this much, then what about Satoshi?

Dark's blast hit true. Krad gave an agonized shriek and dropped to the rocks just underneath Dark. Dark swooped down and pinned Krad to the rock shelf below the bridge, panting hard as he quickly locked him into position with his full weight on top. He was larger than Krad by only an inch or so, but it made all the difference. Krad stared back up at them with murderous, luminous eyes.

Satoshi's eyes.

_You can't kill him! _Daisuke shouted. _You can't!_

"He took you from me," Dark said conversationally, but there was a hint of malice in his tone. "Don't tell me what to do."

_Dark, you bastard! I won't let this happen! _Daisuke pressed with all his might, tried to force a transformation. Dark resisted. It was like pressing against a very flexible wall.

"Don't make me _hurt _you, Daisuke! Stop it!"

The wall was weakening, just a little. Daisuke threw all of his remaining strength into it, willed Dark away with all his might. There was a snap-shudder of transformation and he knew he was victorious, though Dark certainly didn't come quietly; there was a thirty-second struggle in which both souls fought for dominance. _He'll never do this to me again, _Daisuke swore to himself with narrowed eyes, concentrating on himself.

It was like all the memories of that night had simply been sucked away. He was repressing them; he knew he had to, because to face them head-on would mean confronting his darkest fears.

"You've got me, Dark, but you won't get Satoshi too," Daisuke said when he had Dark under control. "Because Satoshi…" He pressed a hand to the face below him, looked straight into Krad's eyes without a trace of fear, "…Satoshi is my friend."

There was a shifting, a sudden melting of form into form, and the face beneath him changed from an expression of shock to one of weariness. And when he looked again, he noticed that Satoshi was indeed back. His eyes closed and then opened, wider than before, and Daisuke suddenly realized he was still straddling Satoshi's hips to keep him in place. He quickly backed off and gave the guy room.

"I'm sorry," Satoshi said quietly. "I came to stop him from telling Riku… he took over your body to tell her, and Krad… Krad couldn't handle it." His shirtsleeve began to turn red from the elbow down, and Daisuke realized that the skin he could see was covered in little red incisions, about an inch long, and that Satoshi's forearm had a gash down the center of it.

"Why, Satoshi? Why're you trying to help me out when it hurts you like this?" he pressed. But Satoshi drew his legs up, supported himself on steady legs, and clutched his forearm in his other wrist. "It's complicated, Daisuke," he said tightly.

"What the hell is so complicated about it? The way I see it, you act like you don't care, but then you go and pull a stunt like this!"

"Riku's up there, Daisuke. She's the one you need to focus on right now."

He turned to look behind him and noticed that his mother and grandfather were eagerly watching him. Though they were unable to hear the conversation, they had to know it was getting heated, and they looked slightly worried. Riku's hair spilled over her forehead and her mouth was parted slightly, her brow creased as if in a bad dream.

"Stay here," Daisuke said firmly. "I'll be right back. I want to find out what happened."

When he returned five minutes later, Satoshi had disappeared. There were white feathers all around, and a few drops of blood, but beyond that, nothing.

* * *

"I hate you," he said to his face in the mirror as he toweled the side of his face with a wet washcloth. He had just gotten back from helping his mother stick Riku back in her room; only time would tell if she would think she had hallucinated or had really, truly seen Dark transform into him. He was, of course, not talking to himself; he was speaking to Dark. But Dark had obviously become very weakened by the magic he'd used. He was in a deeper sleep than Daisuke had ever felt before.

"Hey, Daisuke, you here?" A voice called from the adjacent room as the door creaked open. It was Takeshi; he slammed it shut behind him and threw himself onto his own bed. When Daisuke had come in earlier he'd noticed his bed had been changed and cleaned; apparently Dark was meticulous about those things when he raped somebody. Hah. Bitter humor. "Yeah, I'm here," He replied, throwing the towel into the sink and moving back into the main room. "What about you? No mahjong?"

"Eh, I need the sleep," Takeshi said, crossing his arms behind his head and shutting his eyes. "You know, it's harder than it looks, kicking butt at that game. You get any action with Harada?"

"What?"

"Yeah, I saw you leaving the room earlier when I was down the hall. Talking to Riku, right?"

_That must have been when Dark was in control_. Daisuke shook his head.

"Come _on, _man. All you've done is kiss her?"

Daisuke sat down on his own bed, hands folded in his lap, his neck bent slightly. "What do you want me to do, throw her down and screw her in front of you? I'm not like that," he said irritatedly.

Takeshi opened his eyes, slid them towards Daisuke. And then he paused and blew out a puff of air, slow and deliberate, before shifting off the bed and taking a seat next to Daisuke. The sudden weight on the mattress caused a dip and Daisuke lowered about half an inch. "Look, man. There something you want to tell me?" Takeshi said earnestly.

It was one of the only times Daisuke had ever seen him remotely serious. He still wore an irate expression as he turned his head to Takeshi, eyeing him. "Like what?"

"I don't know. Anything. Seems like something's been bothering you for the last few days, you know? You're out of it. You don't have to tell me, whatever it is, just—" he trailed off, looking expectant. As if he would be more than happy to listen, and not make fun of him for once.

Daisuke blinked. Was it really that obvious?

"You got some kind of family trouble or something? Come on, Daisuke. I've known you for ten years. You don't act like this unless something's really up."

_Act like what? _He wondered. The ten years part was what struck him as odd: had it really been that long since he'd met Takeshi? It didn't feel like it. He felt like the older boy didn't know him very well. But how could he? How could anyone? Nobody could ever get close to him, or they'd figure out his secret. And that could never happen.

But he wanted to tell someone.

Takeshi would understand.

"I'm in love," he said softly. A light came into Takeshi's eyes and he punched the air with one fist. "I _knew _it! Some other chick, right? And you don't know how to break it to Riku?"

"…No, not really," Daisuke said. "It's more as if… well, this person… they don't seem to want me the same way I want them. But I think, underneath it all, they're in love with me, too. But I don't know what to say to them." He sighed.

Takeshi looked at him as if he were an idiot. "Easy, man. Just corner her and force a confession out, right? I mean, if this girl likes you, and you're sure she does, then all you've gotta do is get her to admit it. Sounds like she's screwed up mentally or something. Believe me, people love it when someone else straightens out their problems." Takeshi whacked him on the back enthusiastically. "Just do it, yeah?"

Daisuke bit his lower lip, eyes lowering. He was determined to make this right. It was time to make amends between him and Satoshi.

With that thought in mind he went to sleep; he would confront those other dark thoughts later. But what was important now was staving off the rising feeling of panic, the feeling of having to tread to keep his head above the water. He had to swear to himself never to think of what had gone on last night, even though he knew he couldn't forget it entirely. It would always be in the back of his mind, lurking quietly. But for now he needed to keep afloat. And he couldn't do that alone.

In the morning he slipped out of bed before anyone was awake. He went to the bathroom and picked up the matted washcloth to wipe off his face, pausing when he caught his reflection.

There were purple hand-marks around his neck.

He hastily pulled up his shirt and looked at his stomach: red marks, the little half-moon shapes that nails would make if someone had been gripping him very tightly, sprinkled his hips. And there was a single slash mark down the left side of his chest, which had been bleeding but was not anymore. He must have gotten that from the fight.

He went back into the room and tugged on a white turtleneck top and jeans. Since it was overcast today, it was about sixty degrees on the island, which was warm but not too warm. And it was freezing inside the hotel, anyways.

He opened the door and made his way down the hall towards Satoshi's room. It wasn't very far, but it seemed much longer than it actually was; his heart was beating, his palms were positively drenching in sweat. He paused just outside Riku's door as he saw her kneeling in front of it, feeling a small sense of betrayal pooling inside him when he realized that this was the girl he'd helped into her bed last night because she had been drugged. _Drugged for learning too much about me, _he said guiltily to himself.

"Daisuke..?" she asked as he approached. "Can you unlock this for me?"

He looked at the door, a quizzical expression on his face. "Er… no, I'm sorry."

Sudden relief.. _relief? _Washed over her face. "Of course you can't. Sorry, dunno what I was thinking. I mean, it's not like you're _Dark _or anything!" she said, and laughed too loud. He grinned widely: "You're right, I can't. Since I'm not… Dark," he concluded, and laughed as well. His voice sounded false even to his own ears. _Sorry, Riku. I have to pretend, _he thought quietly.

"I guess I'd better go," he said out loud, and she waved him on with a nod of her head. "I'll get a teacher," she called after him as he disappeared round the corner.

Satoshi's room. Here he was again for the second time. Why was he here, again? Oh, right, Takeshi's advice. _Force a confession out of them. Get them to admit their feelings…_

He knocked three times. Nobody came to the door.

There was a noise from behind him and he spun to see Satoshi, a cell phone grasped in his hand and fully dressed. As he recognized Daisuke he slid the smart device into his belt and gave a very small sigh.

"I daren't ask what you're doing here," he said.

"I came to see how you were feeling after last night," Daisuke replied grudgingly.

"I'm fine," Satoshi lied through his teeth. "Better shape than you."

"I beg to differ," Daisuke said. He made a small noise of protestation when Satoshi neared him and pulled down the neck of his turtleneck, revealing the angry purple bruises. Shaped just like fingers. He sucked in a hissing breath: "Daisuke!"

"It's nothing," Daisuke said.

"Krad did not do this." This was not a question.

"…No."

"I hate him," Satoshi said. "I swear... God, Daisuke. What else?"

"There's nothing else," he said. "It wasn't very bad. Look, Satoshi. All I came here to ask was, do you really not care at all, and did you really just make a mistake that one time, or are you just afraid of what Dark will do to me if we're together? Because nothing he could do to me is worse than what he's done."

Satoshi fixed him with a strong gaze. "Like I said, Daisuke. I don't want you hurt."

"Damnit, it hurts more dreaming about you than it does to be with you."

Satoshi watched him. "Do you mean that?"

Daisuke reddened. "I'm serious. I didn't just do this off the top of my head, okay? I really thought about it. I'm not just a kid, Satoshi. And you're acting like you don't care, but I think you really do, underneath…"

Daisuke found himself emboldened for a moment by the echo of Takeshi's words, and he forced Satoshi against the door of his room, still in the hallway, anxiously seizing his lips in a kiss. Much to his surprise Satoshi's response was like a slingshot. He hadn't realized how tense the older boy had been. He softly nipped at Daisuke's lip as if drawn by force to do so. Satoshi's hand slipped down to Daisuke's thigh, tracing an idle pattern there as they were sandwiched against the wood. Daisuke's eyes widened; whatever he was doing, it felt _good. _Nothing should be allowed to feel that good.

Suddenly Satoshi broke away. "Not here… inside…" he said in short, gasping breaths, working the key into the lock and snapping the door open.

The both of them tumbled inside and Satoshi shut the door as they pressed against the backside of the door, mouths joined and the both of them trapped in a little bubble of paradise. Once again the hand slid to between Daisuke's legs, finding the area already hard, and as if surprised, began to stroke Daisuke softly. The feeling was electric, and Daisuke gave a small moan and a shiver as he half-collapsed onto Satoshi's shoulder.

"I'm going to hate myself for this," Satoshi said in a voice thick with lust.

"My God, just…" Daisuke said incoherently, "Just… more, don't stop now…"

Satoshi worked his hands into Daisuke's fly and unzipped it, dropping his jeans to a pool around his ankles. Boxers likewise; in a moment his hand had paused on the side of Daisuke's hip as he looked down in horror at what he saw. Just above the slightest thatch of reddish hair were the nail-marks.

"I'm going to kill him," he said, not for the first time.

Daisuke shuddered with need; his erection was already stiffer than ever. "Do it later. Stay with… me right now," he said with some difficulty. His brain seemed to have drifted down to the area between his legs. He wasn't thinking properly.

Satoshi looked into his eyes: "I can't believe you're real," he said helplessly, wisping the very tip of his index finger down the head of Daisuke's erection. A million ultrasensitive nerves blazed into brilliance and Daisuke saw stars. "Of all people, you… why did it have to be you…?" he wondered aloud, and curled his hand loosely around the tip, sliding his fist downwards, nails slipping further and causing warm, twinging feelings in the soft flesh just between his legs. "It could have been anyone, but it was a Niwa…" he slid his hand up and down his shaft, his aching hard-on throbbing insanely.

This elicited another small moan from the back of Daisuke's throat. He grabbed onto the front of Satoshi's shirt with both fists, his head pressed to the dip just between Satoshi's shoulder and neck. Satoshi continued to fist him as his breathing grew steadily more laboured, more erratic, his eyes unfocused. He yelled Satoshi's name as he spilled onto the tile, onto Satoshi's pants, and then sagged against him as the silver-haired boy embraced him, held him safely and securely. They both sagged down to the floor.

"Daisuke, you have to understand that I may lose control again. Krad could get out. He won't right now, but he could soon," Satoshi said. There were no traces of fear in his voice, but Daisuke knew that if he looked up they would be plain on his face.

"I understand," Daisuke said. "It's okay."

Satoshi pressed his mouth to the top of Daisuke's head, seemingly at peace, and Daisuke lifted his face so that their noses were nearly touching. "It's okay," he repeated softly, and they kissed.

They ended up on the bed again. How, he didn't know, but he did know that his clothes were still over by the door and Satoshi was still fully dressed.

"How do you know what you're doing?" he asked Satoshi bewilderedly as he slid back onto the comforter. "I mean all this. You're… good at it."

Satoshi's face darkened. "I had practice."

"…You did?"

"I am… relatively experienced. My adopted father, he insisted I learn how to control myself in every situation. And then there was Krad."

Now Daisuke really was confused.

"Krad has been with me since I was born. He did not 'awaken'. He… was first. It just seemed natural, I guess. He taught me most of what I learned, and though he's rather jealous and certainly posessive, he's not half bad when it comes down to it."

"My family.. mmph… always made him out to be… mm, more… a villain." Satoshi traced the outlines of the tears and bruises with his fingertips, giving a very divine mix of pleasure and pain. "Yes," he said absentmindedly, "They would say that, I suppose. But Krad has never done anything like_ this_." He kissed Daisuke's neck, right in the palm of one of the hand marks.

Daisuke slipped Satoshi's shirt off his shoulders before Satoshi realized it was happening. A skill only a thief might master. Satoshi fumbled with the button on his pants, tossed the rather expensive-looking cell phone onto an armchair, and did away with the belt entirely. "We're cursed," he said, meeting Daisuke's eyes, "And I will truly hate myself for giving into you. But you… are like… poison." He was undressed now, and he paused perched on the end of the bed, staring solemnly at Daisuke's neck.

"Are you sure about this, Daisuke?"

"Yes." His voice was straight. He was not making light promises. He hadn't known the extent of his feelings for Satoshi until the moment he'd seen him that morning.

"We can't go back if we do this," he said. "Not to the way we were before. I'm in love with you."

"Satoshi, I'm serious. I want you to do this."

Satoshi smiled. "Then I suppose that's that," he said. "You must let me know if I hurt you, though."

"You're not going to hurt me," Daisuke said reassuringly. "You wouldn't hurt me."

"Not for the world," he said, and silenced him as an oiled finger slipped inside his opening, sliding in and out up to the third knuckle; professional, but altogether tender, and more compassionate than anything he'd felt in his life. Satoshi was absolutely crazy about him, and though he seemed to be taking his time he was going very slowly and gently.

"God, and you're mine," he said in disbelief.

He added another finger, and this time as he probed he twisted his fingers up at the end. "Somewhere here… I think…" he whispered almost inaudibly, and Daisuke suddenly arched in a wordless shout. Satoshi had found his pleasure centre and was now rubbing against it from the inside. Shock spasms raced through his upper legs and all the way up to his neck. He was entirely dissolved into nothing in Satoshi's arms, under his patient ministrations.

When Satoshi entered him, slick and professional, there was not a single stab of pain—this was a hundred percent perfection, down to the very last fibre. An experience of the highest caliber. Filling him, completing him, now he realized why people used cliché words for things like love, because there was _nothing else to say _but what had already been said. All the clichés were true, and that was why they were there in the first place. He arched his neck and his adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed hard, eyes shut, hands like a vise gripping Satoshi's back.

He shuddered as Satoshi pushed again, this time even deeper, and the older boy paused halfway. "I'm not hurting you, am I?" he said in a very uneven voice, uncontrolled with passion. Not his usual cold tone. Daisuke's mouth was open slightly, and he barely managed a "no, God, no" before he was swallowed by emotion entirely.

He had never come twice before, but the feeling was beautiful and wrenching and so amazing that he couldn't stand it when the final waves ebbed and disappeared. Satoshi did not pull out as he came and instead half-slumped onto Daisuke, his elbows pressing into the bed on either side of Daisuke's neck. Everything had been squeezed out of him now, every last modicum of feeling, so that he was simply lying there feeling satiated with the hum of satisfaction in the air around him.

Satoshi withdrew slowly and crawled next to him, wrapping his arms around Daisuke's shoulders and bringing him to himself. "Are you all-right?" he asked. Daisuke nodded and bit his lower lip, a few tears pooling in his eyes before slivering down his face and onto his chin. Satoshi just held him tighter. "What's wrong?"

"N-nothing. Just… don't get up. Don't leave me right now," Daisuke said as he buried his nose in Satoshi's skin. It should've been illegal to have skin like that. Not human at all. Satoshi was the perfect image of a Tamer: intelligent, strong, brave, handsome… _really, really handsome…_noble, courteous. Daisuke was just one rather pale, lanky redhead. He wondered what Satoshi saw in him.

"I won't," Satoshi promised in a whisper, pressing his chin to the top of Daisuke's head.

And this time he kept his word.


	11. Greying Sky

Gack! I didn't update because I've entered myself into a contest on another fanfiction site, and have been furiously trying to compose my entry for the last few days. But just to compensate I made this chapter extra long. As in, freakishly long. Well, I guess I just wanted to wrap up book six.

* * *

Looking back on things, Daisuke would later comment that this was when things began to really change, and look even auspicious for once. He and Satoshi sneaked out and went down to the beach in the early morning to look at the water the morning after: neither of them had really gotten to enjoy their school vacation so far. Satoshi told him some things then: about his foster father, about Krad and himself, and how he'd come to be police chief. How he always lived alone. Why he couldn't come near Daisuke before, but now he felt like for the first time in his life he might be able to trust someone. When the ferry arrived and they had to pack up their bags, Daisuke's parents were there to greet him. It was a normal day, and a good one at that, not at all filled with the horror of two nights ago.

* * *

"You… are insane," Satoshi said. They had just finished a rather long make-out session in front of Azumano Square behind one of the park benches, where nobody ever came anyways, and the place was deserted. But hey, it was still public. That added the element of danger. The making out bit had been started by Daisuke, probably the reason Satoshi was criticizing him now.

"I know," he grinned. "Can't help it."

It had only been two weeks since the end of the class trip, and today was the day he had submitted his painting for the annual art contest. It hadn't been anything special, just a snowscape, but he had worked hard on it and he couldn't help but want to celebrate. And not only that: he'd been working on something else, something a little more secret. This was something he couldn't share with Satoshi, or anyone else.

"What's got you… like this?" Satoshi asked, fixing his glasses, which had fallen askew when Daisuke had shoved him down. Such long fingers. Daisuke stared at Satoshi's hand for a moment before snapping back to the present, replying, "Oh, the art contest. I finally finished a painting for once."

"You… are a painter." Half a question, half a comment.

"Yeah. I mean, no. I'm not very good. But it's fun."

Satoshi looked at him with amazement, then pulled him into his lap, one arm looping around Daisuke's waist as he pressed his chin onto the back of Daisuke's head. "You know," he said, "You really are something."

"Not really," Daisuke said, somewhat embarrassed. "I'm not smart, like you… I have to study a lot. And you're a police commander. I'm just a high-school student."

"Hey. I'm a student too," Satoshi protested with a wry smile.

"Everyone knows you're just pretending to need schooling. You've got the best marks in the class and you haven't touched a notebook all year, much less turned in any homework."

Satoshi didn't move his head for a bit, and then replied, "It doesn't matter how skilled someone becomes if they lose themselves in the process."

"What's that supposed to mean? I'm a B student, remember?"

"Nothing, Dai."

They kissed.

He couldn't say when he felt Dark had awoken, but he knew that the thief was stirring. For two whole weeks, Dark had not stolen anything, because he had been in a solid, deathlike sleep. Daisuke was partly glad that Dark was not awake and partly afraid of what would happen when he did finally regain consciousness.

And when he awoke, Daisuke would have to put his plan into action.

How could he possibly hope to get Dark to talk to him rationally? It was a futile effort.

* * *

At the dinner table, his mother asked him the same question she had asked every day for the last two weeks. "Dai, sweetie, how's Dark doing?"

"Fine, mom," he said.

_See how she cares more about him than about you?_

_**That's not true.**_

_She didn't ask how you were doing, did she?_

"Has he woken up yet?" this was To-to, who had recently joined the family, and was fitting in rather nicely. She'd taken to frilly clothes that Daisuke's mom had no use for, and when Emiko had given her a hundred dollar bill and told her to save it she'd run straight down to the corner shop and bought a maid outfit. It looked kind of cute on her, he had to admit, but she was still too much of a spaz for him. He sighed.

"No, but… he's going to soon."

"Oh, good! I was so worried!" this was his mother.

_Not worried about you. Worried that Dark wouldn't come back._

_**That's… not… true!**_

Daisuke lowered his head to his food, and his stomach gave an uneasy flip and churn. He had suddenly lost his appetite for dinner. He pushed out his chair and stepped out, then walked over to the base of the stairs.

"Daisuke? Dai, honey, what's the matter?"

"Nothing, mom. I'm not hungry."

"He's a growing boy, Emiko. Leave him be," said his grandfather.

"But… he needs to keep up his strength! Oh, he'll get sick! How horrible!" To-to exclaimed, the loudest voice there.

* * *

When Dark woke up, he wouldn't be able to see Satoshi anymore, or at least not as often. And Satoshi would never be able to touch him. He was miserable. He sat at his art desk, looking down at the blank sheet of paper before him, forehead perched on his fist. He couldn't think, he couldn't draw.

A knock gave blessed release from his own thoughts, and he looked up: "Yeah, come in."

His father stepped into the room.

"Kosuke?" Daisuke asked, one brow raising. "I mean… dad? What's up?" Normally his father didn't come to his room unless something was very important. He had, after all, missed out on the last fourteen years of his son's life. His own child was an enigma to him. He looked slightly hurt at Daisuke using his first name, but made a smooth recovery and turned to the wall behind him, flicking at a bare spot on the white plaster.

"Um… dad?"

"Security cameras. The house is riddled with them." He sighed, sitting down on Daisuke's bed, patting his hand on the comforter for Daisuke to sit next to him. Once settled, he gave the wall a dark glance: "Never liked your grandfather's surveillance system. It made me feel a bit invaded."

Daisuke blinked very widely. "What do you mean, surveillance system? There's cameras in my room?" he looked around, as if expecting to see one, and Kosuke nodded. "They're very small, but Daiki has certainly put plenty of them up. I think he wants to keep an eye on you, just to make sure that nothing bad happens to you. It's a kind effort but a stupid way to go about it." He shrugged, shaking his head. "Anyways, we need to talk."

"Uhm." Daisuke was distracted. _There are cameras in my room. That means that when Dark and I… when we… grandpa might have seen… _He wrapped his hands in the fabric of his jeans, knuckles flexing.

"Don't worry, they aren't on most of the time. But on certain occasions he likes to turn them on, like now. Your grandfather doesn't trust me. Isn't that right, Daiki?" he said, the last part to the wall. "Microphones, too," he mouthed at Daisuke.

"But you know, I only came to give you this," he said, and then pulled something out of his pocket. It was a small ring, just big enough to fit over Daisuke's left index, and was made of onyx with a tiny pair of wings carved into the side, studded with a ruby. Daisuke slipped it on, wrinkling his nose: "It's girly."

"Maybe. You don't have to wear it all the time; just keep it on you. I found two of them in an Incan temple. The priests used them thousands of years ago to ward off malevolent spirits. You can use it to suppress Dark whenever you want."

"He's stronger than I am. He'll break it."

"Not with this, he isn't. He took over your body on the school trip, didn't he?"

"…Yes," Daisuke admitted.

"This will stop that from ever happening again. He won't manifest, either. Not unless you want him to."

_Dark will never appear again unless I want him to…? I'll never have to deal with him again! Well, he'll be angry, but I can handle that, and as long as he can't hurt me, maybe we can work something out. We can form some kind of truce._

He threw his arms around his father's neck in a tight hug. "Thanks, Dad," he said gratefully, smiling.

"Anytime, kid." Kosuke nodded and left, wagging a finger at the wall as he did.

* * *

Dark awoke that night.

_What the hell happened? I feel like a train hit me…_

"Oh, so you're awake. You fought with Krad."

_Who won?_

"Neither." Daisuke's words were biting, harsh.

_It's night now, isn't it? Are we stealing tonight?_

"No. Mom wants you to rest and get your strength back."

_I'm fine. I'm not some weak human like you. Wait a sec…_

Dark had just tried to manifest physically and failed. Daisuke felt a small barrier in the middle of his mind, separating Dark from the outside world like a very rubbery, almost transparent wall. Dark couldn't get past it. It was like Siran wrap all over his mind, keeping the thief in.

_Daisuke, what the fuck is this?_

"A gift," he said calmly, "From my dad." If his dad had told him it would work, then it would work. He had nothing but confidence.

_…Daisuke…_

"Dark, I need to talk to you. This is the only way I can get you to listen."

_…Now I remember… you ran off and screwed Hikari the second I disappeared! You two-faced little bitch, you fucking went back on me! You left me, after everything I've told you, after I've loved you for almost an entire year!_

"Dark…" Daisuke winced. He didn't like it when Dark got foulmouthed.

_No. You still didn't listen, did you? You've been with him all this time, probably. What a slut. I can hardly believe we're from the same lineage. You disgust me! _He went on to say several very nasty things about the content of Daisuke's character, and to name various objects which Daisuke ought to shove up various orifices in his body. Daisuke let him get his rant out and then counted, in his head, down from ten. After he got to one, he spoke again.

"Dark, why do you want to hurt me so badly?" he asked in a very clear voice.

_I'm in love with you, and you don't like me. How else am I supposed to get you to behave? How else am I going to get you to listen to me?_

"I'm not even going to question your sanity yet," he replied, "But I have to tell you, that's not the way to make your Tamer love you. You're losing serious brownie points here."

_Brownie what?_

"You're just making me hate you more." He wasn't being as serious as he ought to about this. Dark was a dangerous spirit. But maybe he was getting a little complacent; the ring had worked, and he was near deliriously happy. "Why are you so set on me returning your feelings? Wouldn't you rather we both try and break the curse? You like Risa too, don't you?"

_Not as much as you. Risa's got a fantastic chest, sure, but I know your **soul. **I know everything about you. Doesn't it make sense that you love me in return?_

This was where he put the first steps of his plan into action…

He'd been thinking things over lately, and he'd decided that he wanted to change something. He didn't like the way his family fought with the Hikaris. And why, he wondered, hadn't anyone been able to break the curse before? Because none of his ancestors were able to get Dark to love anyone his Tamer. So maybe, if he could get Dark to like Risa… Satoshi, of course, was out of the question.

_I can't even see what you're thinking. This stupid ring… is blocking everything…_

"Good. It's supposed to do that. Now listen, Dark. I want to make a deal with you."

_I'm listening. _He could sense Dark's hesitation.

"Suppose I could get you a body of your own?" This was the second part of his plan. He'd been doing research, compiling notes from his father's personal library, poring over his grandfather's tomes over the last week. And he'd found some things.

_…What do you mean?_

"I mean I can turn you human. I don't know into what form, but you'd be in a body of your own, free to live a mortal life."

Dark considered this and seemed to like the idea. Daisuke felt a sense of longing, stretching so wide he thought it would swallow him. And then Dark concealed his thoughts for a minute before replying. _What do I have to do?_

"You have to fall in love with someone who isn't me, and get them to love you back. In this case, Risa or Riku, I guess."

_And that's all?_

"Yes, according to my grandpa's books."

_You did all this while I was asleep?_

"Yes."

_…_

"Do you get it?"

_…Dai…_

…

_…I'll do it…_

Daisuke was sure his sigh of relief was palpable. "Thank you, Dark."

_…I still hate you, though, for leaving me… and for HIM…_

"Well, I've got the ring, and there's nothing you can do about it for now. Just please, try this, Dark. It'll be good for you to learn how to love someone the right way. I didn't think there _was _a different way, at first, but there is, and it's much better. So can we please agree to a truce for now?"

_…Truce, my love. But only for a little while._

Dark said nothing after that. And when Daisuke finally turned over and went to sleep, Dark was still in his mind, mulling things over, brooding as if he were formulating a plan of some sort. Daisuke could only hope Dark would keep his word.

If he didn't, then there would be hell to pay.

* * *

The next day, Daisuke really was sick.

To-to blamed it on his lack of dinner. "I TOLD YOU YOU WOULD GET SICK! OH MY GOSH! MRS. NIWA, DAISUKE'S GOING TO DIE!" she screeched, fluttering around and dumping all the medicine from every medicine cabinet in the house on his bed. Daisuke sat up groggily and accepted a single cup of cough syrup from his mother, but no more.

"Hon, you've got a fever," his mother proclaimed. "You're staying home."

"HE'S GOING TO DIEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"There's something important today at school. We're choosing roles for the Spring play. I can't miss it, mom."

"DEAD! AGH! AND HE'S SO YOUNG!"

"Well, you'd better get going, then. You only have five minutes."

"DAISUKE, I'LL STAY BY YOUR SIDE WHILE YOU SLIP INTO OBLIVION!"

"Agh! Really? Then I'd better— um, miss To-to, can you get off me, please?" Daisuke asked politely. She was on her knees, arms wrapped around his neck like a small child, and sobbing hysterically into his chest. He gently pushed her off, not unkindly, and dressed as fast as he could in the bathroom before darting out the door.

He was still late, of course. When he got into the classroom there was already a notice on the board.

And at the very top of the board was his name. **_Daisuke Niwa: 59 votes_ **was written in white lettering,and then in large print underneath, **_UNANIMOUS!_**

He snagged Takeshi by the shoulder. "Um, Takeshi, what's going on?"

"Hey, man, you're here!" he hadn't been acting any differently since their talk on the island. Maybe he really just didn't care, which was the probable case, because he threw his arm around Daisuke. "You guys, Freedert's arrived!" he addressed the class. All the girls turned around and cheered, and from the guys' side of the classroom came hoots and hollers.

He felt remotely uneasy. "What's that?" he asked, pointing to his name.

"You got chosen to play the lead role, Daisuke, 'cause you're hot, and the girls decided the play this year would have an all-boy cast."

"The _girls _decided?"

"There are twice as many girls as guys. They swung the vote. Go figure," he replied.

"But wait. Up there it says 'unanimous'."

"Well, the guys kind of liked the idea, too. I mean, if you didn't take the part, then one of _us _would have to be Freedert. And nobody wants to do that. She's such a _chick. _But you? You're perfect for the job. Besides, you only have to profess your undying love, which isn't so bad."

Daisuke choked. "To _whom?_"

"Duh, Elliot. Don't you know the storyline?"

"Yes, but… who's playing Elliot?"

"Oh! Right. Everyone voted unanimously on Elliot's part, too." He jerked his thumb towards the back of the classroom, where Satoshi was poised on the edge of the class bench, a novel in one hand, clearly more interested in the book than in anything happening around him.

_...Ugh, how ironic._

"No kidding," Daisuke muttered. Dark hadn't seemed as if he wanted to break out yet today, but Daisuke had the ring on, just in case. And was it his imagination, or was Dark almost… friendly? Sarcastic, of course, but friendly and lighthearted. He hadn't been this way since the very beginning, when he had first appeared. Daisuke was rather enjoying it.

"But I'm playing a _girl, _Takeshi. Can't I get out of it?"

"No. The rabid girls in 4-A would tear you apart, man."

He looked over to the side of the room where said girls were in a giggling huddle, an immense pile of crinoline and lace between them. They looked to be making the beginnings of a corset and petticoats…

"O-ho! If it isn't my good friend Niwa-chan!" came a voice from behind him. Oh, he knew that voice. _He knew that voice! _And it was definitely a bad voice at that. _Please don't let it be.. please don't let it be him…_

"Mister Keiji Saga," Daisuke said flatly. "How nice to see you."

Saga was only twenty-two, not very old at all, and already he was the head of a multi-million dollar advertising conglomerate. It was actually amazing how such an idiot could produce such wealth, and all by himself… though Daisuke suspected his assistant, Funabashi, had done most of the hard work. Funabashi stood right next to Saga. Whereas Saga was blonde, tanned and handsome, Funabashi was average and dark, with quick-thinking eyes and a sharp chin.

Saga threw his arm around Daisuke's shoulder from behind, petting the top of his head as if he were a puppy. "I just _love _you. When I heard you were going to be the drag queen star of our little show, I absolutely had to direct it! Unfortunately, these morons are all I've got to work with…" he gestured about the room. "But you are just the cutest little thing I've ever seen!" he tapped Daisuke lightly on the behind, giving him a sharp wink.

…And was suddenly dragged backwards and thrown to the floor. Funabashi was standing right behind him, rolling his eyes.

"FUNABASHI-chan! _What _have I said about interrupting my private time with the actors?"

"Sir, it's my duty to inform you that you're being a pervert."

"Oh, yes. I did tell you to warn me about that, didn't I? Thank you, Funabashi-chan." He dusted himself off and stood, as if nothing had ever happened. "Right. So. We have practice all next week after school every day. I'll see you there! Oh, and by the way, Saehara, we're changing Hiwatari's part to Dark Mousy instead of Elliot. It'll make it much more dramatic, don't you think?" and then he dashed off again.

Satoshi looked up from his book and quirked an eyebrow.

Daisuke was called over by the art teacher just then, who informed him in a rather sympathetic voice that his painting hadn't placed, though it had done very well.

"You've got a good gift there, Niwa. Maybe next time, eh?"

"Yeah," he said, disheartened. "Maybe."

He was walking out of the school when he met Satoshi, who was sitting by the tree on the outside edge of campus with his book. He wasn't wearing his glasses, and Daisuke wondered if he really needed them or if they were merely cosmetic? Either way they gave him a striking, intellectual look, and it was odd to see him without them.

"Satoshi."

He looked up, startled, and started to stand. "Hey. I'll just leave, it's okay…"

"Leave?" Daisuke asked, puzzled. "Why?"

"Ah…" he said, pausing, half-risen. "Dark… is he… awake? I didn't want to come near you today… in case he, ah, transformed."

"Yes, he's awake, but we made a truce. He promised not to attack you." As if to reassure himself, Daisuke pressed one hand against the front of his shirt, where the ring dangled on a thin silver chain just beneath his clothing. His other hand was busy holding the painting, though, and he didn't dare set it down lest he ruin the oils.

"A truce?" Satoshi stared hard at him, decided he wasn't kidding, and scowled. "So the bastard thinks he can get off hurting you and then just trucing his way out of it?" His voice rose angrily as the sentence finished. "And now," he said, almost shouting, "He thinks he's going to get off free for what he did?"

_And you're in love with this guy._

"No, but it's the only way. I can't make him go away, Satoshi, not yet. I'm working on it. You have to believe me when I say that he's not going to come out anytime soon, except for when he steals things. My dad gave me a ring to suppress him."

"Stealing…" Satoshi rubbed a hand over his face. "Right. That's tonight, isn't it? At the Klein church?"

_Ooh, very good, Commander. I'm going to come over tonight and make your entire security team burst into tears within thirty seconds. And then I'll have a little fun playing around with you._

"Dark!" Daisuke said sternly.

"What did he say?" Satoshi asked, smirking.

"Nothing," Daisuke muttered.

_Oh, yeah. Revenge will be sweet. Go ahead and set up all your little cameras and all your guard units, lock all the windows… I'll still find a way in faster than you can say 'oh, shit!'_

"Must be something bad. You're flushing red. Is he angry, I wonder?"

_Damn straight. I'd just love to rip your head clean off…watch you bleed… mm, now that's what I call fun. Niwas can steal and hide, but nobody bleeds quite like a Hikari._

"Y-yes, he is," Daisuke said. Satoshi was getting very close, and he found the look in Satoshi's eyes to be rather disconcerting. It was predatory and competitive at once, and altogether seductive.

"He wants to kill me, doesn't he?"

_…And maybe castrate you with a dull knife too… and eviscerate you with a rusty knife… I've heard stomach wounds take a day to kill you…_

"Dark! You promised!" Daisuke said, shocked by the threats. He'd never felt Dark in such a nasty mood before. He was slipping back into his old, homicidal, overposessive self.

_Oh, I won't, but I could… it'd be easy._

"Hmm," said Satoshi. "Well, I don't blame him for his jealousy. After all, he lost, and I won…"

And suddenly he kissed Daisuke, smiling. Daisuke didn't protest, because he didn't have the will to. He folded into Satoshi's embrace without entirely giving in, because at this Dark was positively _livid _and he was making so much racket that Daisuke couldn't even hear his own thoughts. And then, to Dark's further infuriation, a hand crept up and cupped Daisuke's rear, drawing the two of them closer.

_…SON OF A BITCH I HATE HIM I'M GOING TO SHOOT HIM STRAIGHT THROUGH THE HEAD MOTHERFUCKING GOD I'M GOING TO HURT HIM SO BAD HE'LL NEED A WHEELCHAIR TO WALK AND…_

* * *

When they finished, it was nearly five o'clock. And Dark had still not run out of (very colorful) insults.

As he walked out the front drive of the school onto the main road, Riku caught up to him, her lacrosse stick thrown over one shoulder and her school uniform on over her sport socks and cleats.

"Daisuke! Hey!" she said brightly. "I haven't talked to you in a while, it feels like."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess not," he said, feeling sort of guilty about this. He'd been avoiding Riku, mainly because he couldn't think of a way to break it off with her.

Another awkward silence. He never could think of anything to say with Riku.

"Daisuke, did your painting win anything?" she asked to break the ice.

"No. It's not very good. I tried, but I guess I just don't have a talent for art," he said rather sadly.

She took the painting in both hands and looked at the snowscape, her eyes going dreamy and pleased the way girls tended to do when they were looking at something pretty. "Ooh, I like it, though!" she said. "Where's it from?"

"Um, nowhere," he said. "It's just… a snowy place. Where it's always quiet, and there's nothing around… still and silent, but the snow keeps falling." He gave a peaceful smile. He'd had that picture in his head while he painted it: a world where he didn't have to worry about Dark, or anything else for that matter, where he could be blissfully free…

"That's beautiful," she said quietly. "Daisuke, this is amazing. Can I keep it?"

He was surprised, but nodded.

"Yay! I'll hang it on my—oh, God, it's _him,_" she said, and shuddered. Daisuke looked around to see where she was pointing, and was met by Keiji Saga, who was standing just behind him with a leering grin on his face.

"Daisuke-chan, my pet, I'm coming over to your house!" he said giddily.

"No. You're creepy," Daisuke said blithely. "Besides, I'm kind of busy tonight."

At this Saga's eyes alighted. "Busy, you say? Ooh, you wouldn't happen to be going to the Klein church, would you?"

"No." his voice was calm. "I'm going to do homework."

"Well then, I'm coming over. I want to get to know you. _All of you,_" he added, moving his face incredibly close and opening his eyes wider than Daisuke would have thought possible. He was handsome, it was true, but the effect was sort of odd looking. Saga took up one of his hands and ran hisown hand over the top of it. "Such _smooth skin!_" he marveled.

He was suddenly tripped by a long foot and fell onto the concrete. "Gack! Funabashi, you imbecile, what was that for? I was hardly doing anything!"

"Sir, I believe you were being a sick pervert again, sir."

"Remember your place, Funabashi. And be polite, we're going to be staying at Daisuke-chan's house for dinner."

"Hey! I didn't invite you!" he protested, but before he could react, he was dragged off by Saga, who seemed to know exactly where he was going, leaving a very shocked Riku in his wake.

* * *

"Does your friend have to eat so much, Dai?" his mother whispered to him as she sat next to him at the dinner table. "You know, I think that's his sixth helping."

"Seventh." He sighed. "I didn't invite him over, mom."

"Well, at least his assistant doesn't eat much. He's hardly touched his."

"Watching Saga eat would make anyone lose their appetite." Daisuke smirked.

Saga did not look up once during the course of the meal, but when he finished his seventh plate, he sat back in his chair with his hands folded on his stomach, clearly satiated. At this Emiko leapt up and immediately cleared all the plates faster than Daisuke would have thought possible, an enormous grin on her face. "Dai, sweetie, you'd better start on your homework!" she sang as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Daisuke glanced at the clock. Eight thirty: he had half an hour to get to the church by the time on the note.

_Just transform and I'll get us there in five. _

"I can't here," he muttered.

"Hmm, Daisuke-chan?" Saga said.

"Nothing. Ah, I kind of need to finish some work, so if you'll excuse me…" he rose and walked up the stairs, down the hallway, and to the bathroom adjoining his bedroom. Once there, he felt a sort of light air current brushing the back of his neck: he turned around and realized Saga and Funabashi were _right behind him _and he could feel Saga's breathing, he was so close.

"Mr. Saga? 'Scuse me, but I need to go to the bathroom," he said, raising both eyebrows.

"Hey, that's cool. I'll come with y—" Funabashi grabbed onto his ear rather roughly, and he yelped. "Funabashi-chan! What are you doing? I ORDER you to let me go!"

Daisuke slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it. "Wiz, you can come out," he whispered. Wiz climbed out of the shower, looking very tired, but nonetheless ready to go. Daisuke bent down to the floor and pressed his hands to the tile, searching for the quick-release spring that would open the trap door in the floor and let him get down to the basement. He could sneak out from there. As he found and opened the door, Wiz was changing his appearance, adding touches here or there. For a moment there were two clone Daisukes in the bathroom, one of them making minor adjustments on his eyebrows with a sort of purring noise.

"Thanks, Wiz," Daisuke whispered with a smile. "Good bunny." He took off the ring. Dark did not try and force him to transform, but allowed him to initiate the change. Maybe he'd already saw the light of reason? Or maybe he was just biding his time so that he could take his sweet revenge on Satoshi later.

* * *

"Can't believe we had to take the _sewers,_" Dark complained as he raised the top of a manhole cover, sliding into the room where the Second Hand of Time was. Daisuke had spent the trip to the church telling Dark the story of Ice and Snow, something to keep them both occupied, and something to try and distract Dark from his anger. Give him something to think about besides pounding Satoshi into a very bloody pulp—or even worse, changing into Krad.

_It's always so easy to get in. I wonder why Satoshi didn't think of the sewers._

"Daisuke, you really _are _dumb sometimes. Hikari's been leaving us an entry since the very beginning. He doesn't want us getting caught by the security guards outside; he knows that we could easily fight our way through him."

_So he's not been trying to capture you so much as study how you work…_

"He wouldn't be the first to do that," Dark said with a self-satisfied sneer. "I'd be surprised if every guy in Azumano doesn't take their cues for womanizing from me."

_Mmph. _Daisuke didn't want to annoy him tonight. Best to let him have his little tirade and tiptoe through the minefields for a while if he ever wanted to wear that ring again. It was going to take some tricky persuasion to get Dark to put it back on.

The Second Hand of Time was a small stone about as big as Daisuke's head, and as Dark made his way to the center of the room, he expected to merely grab it and run. But as he reached out for it, there was a flicker of light to his left and he turned. "Shit, there's some kind of spirit ward here…" Dark mused, but retreated a few steps as the light formed into the shape of a young woman with cropped hair and wide, blue eyes.

_I smell… flowers?_

"Yeah, they're everywhere. And who's that woman?"

_What woman? I can't see anything!_

Dark was surprised. "Her! She must be the Hand of Time's manifestation!"

The woman gave a serene smile, then raised both her arms. The air currents in the room shifted and swirled so that the flower petal clouds thickened, drawing Dark towards the stone. Dark scrabbled back onto hard stone and tried to find purchase in the rock, but failed. "Daisuke! Don't touch the stone!" he yelled over the sudden roar that was rising.

_Dark, I can't see anything! _The stone was very close now, and even though he didn't want to go near it, a sudden force threw Dark's body from the ground straight into the stone itself. He crashed against it and sank down, trying to push away from it, but then…

…he found himself being dragged into the stone…

_Dark! No! What's happening!_

…he felt Dark separating from his mind, and there was a sort of _schlup _like a suction being released in his mind…

"DAISUKE!" Satoshi's voice resounded over the din and clamor. For one instant, Daisuke saw a replica of himself looking at him, its face twisted into an expression of mute horror, and Satoshi running for the stone, preparing to launch himself at it, coat-tails flying after him…

…and then nothing.

Silence.

He opened his eyes. _I'm tired._

It was very cold here.

_Where am I? Is this… _

_…Snow?_


	12. Dawn

Time to wrap this fic up. I did this chapter from memory, so some parts may or may not be true to the manga.

I have a beta now. Holy fishpaste, Batman.

Aaand, on top of that, this fic passed the 5000 view mark a while back. Five thousand people... maybe I'm a nerd, but that seems like a helluva lot. I guess it's time for me to start thinking about what kind of fic I want to write next? Something more planned, better done, I think. Something that's actually worthy of being online. And something WITHOUT non-con. I'm getting a little sick of writing non-con scenes.

* * *

Everything was quiet now. Sometimes it was quiet and sometimes it wasn't. When the winds picked up, which they did sometimes, the snow would fly into his eyes and sting the tip of his nose and make his neck burn and go numb at the same time.

He didn't know where he was, or who he was. Wait, yes, he was Daisuke Niwa. Now he remembered. Daisuke Niwa, age fourteen, Azumano high school, ninth grade. Daisuke Niwa, age fourteen, Azumano high school, ninth grade.

Daisuke Niwa… fourteen… high school… ninth.

Daisuke Niwa… high school… fourteenth? Fourteenth grade? Yeah, that sounded right. Fourteenth grade was in high school, wasn't it? Or was that college?

Daisuke… high school.

_…who am I?_

He walked on. There was nobody there. There was nothing there, in that snow-white world, but him and the blankness that surrounded him. No sound or so much as an echo: and yet, the flakes continued to fall, as they had been doing forever and would continue doing until the end of time, slow and tranquil.

And it was just what he thought he wanted.

His memory was going blank, until he wondered if he had ever really been a boy at all. Everything he remembered about Satoshi, Takeshi, Dark, Riku, Risa… hell, even Saga… they all faded away. It was terribly lonely in his own mind without his memories.

After walking for a long time, he began to grow tired. He sat down against a large mogul and rested his frozen head in the frozen snow, incapable of getting any colder anyways, so it didn't matter. And he closed his eyes.

_I'll just sleep here… for a little while… _

He dreamed of Dark, breaking through the glass of the church windows with a sneer on his face as Satoshi stared after him, his eyes wide with shock. And then he dreamed that Satoshi knelt next to the crystal, which had become not so small, and wondered aloud who had released the sleeping monster.

He dreamed of Satoshi, clothed and unclothed, far away and up close, uptight as when he'd first met him and smiling like he had the day before. Or was that last year?

He dreamed that Dark, looking like Daisuke, was dressed as a girl and was yelling at Satoshi, who was dressed like a phantom thief. _Right, like that could happen, _Daisuke thought.

He dreamed that he was sitting in a chair in front of an enormous canvas, and a person whose face he couldn't see handed him a brush and said, "Paint, Daisuke. Paint what means the most to you." He found colors laid out next to him and he set the brush to canvas and under the bristles the canvas became a photograph: It was Satoshi, facing the viewer, a look of inexpressible sadness on his face and white wings sprouting behind him.

Daisuke woke up some time later in a small, bright glass room. There was sunlight here, and blue sky, and out the window he could see gently sloping green hills seamed with sparkling streams and occasionally a cobblestoned pathway or bridge. Flocks of birds idly flew by. There were trees, too. He rose and looked out the window, his mind still fuzzy.

"Do you like it?" someone asked from behind him. He turned to see a girl, age eighteen or so, with waist length blonde hair and very, very blue eyes. Her skin was pale, like maybe she didn't go outside very often. He nodded, his head blissfully empty. "It's pretty."

"Do you miss… anything?"

He thought hard for a second. It seemed like something was there, just out of his grasp…

"No, I don't think so."

"Good," she said, and smiled. "I'm Freedert. Who are you?"

"I'm…" he couldn't remember. He shook his head mutely.

"Well, I'll have to call you something. What about Elliot?"

He considered. "That name sounds familiar."

She shook her head. "No, you wouldn't know him. He's been gone for a very long time. That's partly why I had to bring you here. You look a lot like him, you know, but your hair is a bit different. You have his eyes though, and his face." She touched his cheek. "You're very handsome, too, but you aren't him." Her face fell.

She looked like she was about to cry. Daisuke felt, somewhere deep down, that the last thing he wanted was for her to be crying, so he shook his head. "No, it's okay. You can call me…Elliot, I guess."

"Really?" the sad look vanished. "Oh, thank you! It's just that I've been waiting for a while, and I don't know when he's going to come back, so I thought maybe you could… replace him for a bit…"

"Well, um, I'll try," he said. Her speech was so eloquent, as if straight out of a fairytale, and he couldn't match it. He wanted nothing more than to make her happy. "What do I… have to do?"

"Paint and forget everything else," she said with a smile. "Just paint what's most important to you. That way this world, and you and I, can be kept alive for a little longer."

That's what he did. Just like in his dream, there was a blank canvas that Freedert provided for him, and a stool upon which to sit. He didn't know how long he painted, but sometimes he fell asleep and woke to find the canvas blank in spaces he was sure he'd painted the day before. And sometimes things were there that he hadn't put himself: someone's face, an extra river in a hill, a cloud where previously there had been none.

* * *

He was there for days and days. When he slept he didn't dream about himself, though. He saw people that he knew he ought to remember, but didn't quite seem to be able to. When he wasn't painting, Freedert told him he was free to walk around the town and palace, just so long as he didn't go too far. That was all-right with him. He had no desire to see much of the outside world anyways. He only wanted to be near her.

Once, he remembered Satoshi's name for a moment. And then it, too, slipped away from him.

One day he went walking in the snow, which was something he enjoyed often. Though the view from the castle and the grounds around it was composed of the green-and-river scenery, if he took the back door from the bottom of the castle he would find himself in this snow world. He never tried to learn how it worked. He didn't care anymore. All he could think about was Freedert, her name bouncing inside his skull like a bullet, drowning out everything else.

After he came back to the castle, sometime in the evening, he went back to the room with the canvas and sat down to paint, staring at it very hard. He was _sure _that his painting had been here, but now everything was gone! The canvas was blank!

"Daisuke!"

Daisuke turned his head slowly to see a figure standing in his way. _He must not be talking to me. I'm Elliot, after all. _That's what Freedert always said when she visited him, anyways.

"Who are you?" he asked the young man with dark hair and solemn eyes.

"What do you mean, you idiot? It's Dark! Only been sharing a body for the last eight months or so…" the young man replied irritatedly. But Daisuke only stared at him, wide-eyed, his face blank.

Suddenly it was as if clockwork had snapped into focus in his brain, and he gave a startled little jump on the bench. "Dark!" he said, eyes widening. "My God, how'd you get in here? Where is this place anyways?"

"Hikari helped a little," Dark admitted, his voice surly. "I mean, he told me how to get inside your crappy little painting. But that's all he did. I had to do the rest by myself, okay? And your girlfriend's here, too. We're stuck in your snowscape, and you'd better figure out how to fix this because if we don't break the seal on this painting, you're going to be in here forever. And Kosuke will kick my ass, or exorcise me, or worse." He finished, slightly out of breath, and Daisuke was surpised that he could now recall the memory of the Klein church, and of touching the Second Hand of Time.

"God…" he said, rubbing his head tiredly, trying to wrap his mind around all this. "You figured all this out by yourself, Dark?"

"Well, naturally. I am the phantom thief Dark Mousy, after all. Besides, I wanted my possession back, and I refuse to let some stupid painting take him away from me."

Daisuke raised an eyebrow. "Whatever you say, Dark. Wait—" one thing penetrated, "Did you say something about my girlfriend?"

Dark snorted and turned, motioning for Daisuke to follow with a jerked finger. Daisuke rose off the bench and quickly darted to Dark's side, afraid that he'd forget everything if he let the thief get out of his sight.

When he realized that they were going to the jail on the underside of the castle, he ran ahead and went to the door that Dark showed him, unlocking the lock with a deft twist of his fingers and throwing the door wide. "Riku!" he called anxiously to the darkness.

When Riku laid eyes on Daisuke, she narrowed her eyes. "You and Dark, both in my dream? This is starting to get suspicious…" she shook her head. Dark ignored her for the moment, but Daisuke smiled back at her reassuringly. "You probably ate something funny," he told her, and then turned to Dark angrily. "_How could you bring her in here?_"

"Wasn't my fault," he mumbled. "She grabbed onto me. You gave her the painting in the first place."

"Dark! You better not have done anything to her!"

"Who, me? Of course not. She's still an innocent virgin flower."

"I can hear you two," Riku said flatly.

"Dark, get her out of here. You can't get me out right now. Something feels… off here. Not right, y'know? I didn't even know who I was until a few seconds ago. Freedert's trying to keep me here, now that I think on it."

"Freedert?" both of them asked simultaneously.

"This is… her world, I think. I think she wants me to be Elliot for her. She wants me to recreate the world as long as I can before she has to close it and let it die." He shrugged. He couldn't have said when this knowledge came to him, but it had seeped in slowly, like water to a sponge.

"Dai, I can't afford to leave you. The painting might not open again." As Dark said this, Daisuke found his mind clearing again, and he couldn't grasp his thought processes as easily as he could a moment ago. He closed his eyes, trying to remember what he wanted to say…

"It'll open. Tell my dad to look through 'Ice and Snow' and…"

He trailed off, frowning.

"And what?"

"Find the real Elliot. He must be a piece of artwork, or Freedert wouldn't be trying to keep this world…" again he lost his thought. How frustrating!

"Just get out of here," he said. "She'll find you if you don't and then you'll be stuck here like me." He sat down in the snow, looked up at Riku. Poor girl. She was terrified, her eyes were open as wide as they would go, and she was clutching the edge of Dark's shirt as if she would rip it. She wasn't stupid, Daisuke knew. She would figure this out soon enough, and then he would have more on his hands than just one angry thief. Straightening, she walked over to Daisuke and threw herself on top of him, wrapping her arms snugly around him. Surprised, he returned the gesture, though it now held no romantic attraction for him. It was more awkward than anything, and Dark was still glaring daggers at him over Riku's shoulder.

"Am I really dreaming? It feels pretty real to me…"

Daisuke forced a laugh. "Yeah, just a dream. Don't worry, Riku. I'll see you at school tomorrow." Over her head he exchanged a silent look with Dark, which clearly said, _Take care of Riku and get her home without trying anything on her or you'll be sorry. And don't so much as lay a finger on Satoshi or I swear to God I'll make you regret it._

But what he said out loud was, "Thanks for understanding, Dark. About all of that… earlier." He waved a hand as if he didn't really care about the ring and about telling Dark off, but inside he was secretly nervous that Dark would still try and hurt him again. _No! Don't think about that! _

He didn't want to be hurt anymore. Not now. He couldn't remember why he was afraid of Dark, but that was part of Freedert's spell, he knew. Maybe it was better that he didn't remember anyways.

Dark's face hardened, eyes glinting. "I'm not surrendering. Once I've got my own body, I'm going to get you to see things my way." His mouth curled in a distinctive sneer.

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. "Get her out of here," he hissed, his voice wavering with fear, "And don't say things like that in front of her." Riku was looking at him with wide eyes. She obviously thought she was having the craziest dream of her life. He could practically see what must've been going through her head: _Dark Mousy and Daisuke Niwa having a lovers' spat! What an odd combination! _Suddenly his head emptied like a toilet being flushed and he clenched his fists. He felt helpless.

Dark rolled his eyes, stepped forward, and plucked Riku off of Daisuke like she weighed nothing. Together they walked as far as the outside, to the snowy side of the castle, with Riku squirming and protesting the entire way about 'this damn pervert'. Dark only ignored her further, though Daisuke could tell by his face that the comment stung. His wings sprouted and he began to fly… up, above the mists and bouts of snow that flurried across the sky, until they were out of sight.

He let out a sigh and lay back in the snow, wrestling with his memories. _No! Don't forget again! Keep your head from clearing out… _but to no avail. Though he could still grasp his own name and the memory of what had just happened, he couldn't seem to recall anything else.

A while passed. He looked at the sky, flat on his back. He didn't really feel like going back to the castle just yet, though he knew that eventually he would have to.

A figure kneeled next to him, skirts spreading over his legs and hips and their freezing-cold hands splaying out on his shoulders. Freedert's head was above his, and she looked down at him. "Elliot, what did you do?" she asked him. He raised his head to see that all around him were guards, their faces covered by masks and their spears glinting in dull winters' light. "Did you… remember?"

"Yes… Freedert. I talked to a friend. My name's Daisuke, not Elliot." He looked up at her. The spell was broken, at least momentarily, and he didn't feel the same complete adoration that he'd been consumed with before. Her eyes turned hard, steely.

"You've done something wrong. I'm sorry, but I need to keep you here for a little while longer. I can't let you remember. Please, forget them, and stay with me, Elliot." She lay down in the snow with him, not at all like a young lady ought to do, and wrapped her arms around him, nuzzling her nose into the crook of his neck. He felt an icy cold hand wrap around his mind and stay there.

"Do you love me, Elliot?" she asked him then.

"Yes," he replied. And it was true. He wanted nothing but to be with Freedert.

He didn't remember anything after that.

* * *

Freedert took up watching him paint. Sometimes she would sit next to him and put a hand on his shoulder. He didn't sleep very often: when he slept, he saw faces of people he knew but didn't recognize, and the visions bothered him.

"Did you dream about them last night, Elliot?" she would ask every morning.

"Yeah. I don't know why I keep doing it though," was his usual reply.

"The memories will go away soon. You aren't him, but if the real Elliot doesn't return to me soon, then I'm afraid you'll have to stay with me for a long time. Would you like that?"

"Yes," he always said. It was inevitable. He couldn't help but love Freedert. There seemed to be someone else he remembered being in love with once, but he didn't care about them now.

One time she led him out onto the balcony and showed him the golden afternoon, the sun setting and painting the sky orange and pink as white clouds drifted lazily across the horizon. It was beautiful, so beautiful that it must have been a fantasy, but it was real. He could feel the warm breeze and smell the flowers in the garden below. It was not a dream.

"I'm dying, Elliot," she told him, hands folded on the balcony wall. "I'm not going to live if I don't get to meet the real Elliot sometime soon. I don't have much time left, and very soon now he'll be coming for me, I guess. Your paintings made me live a bit longer, but… eternal time… isn't really eternal."

She looked like she might go into one of those bouts of crying that she did often, so Daisuke put an arm around her and drew her into an embrace. She sighed happily, looking out at the world and smiling for a moment before continuing.

"But you know, the way they put the story in the books isn't right at all. They forgot about Kyle, anyways."

"Hmm?" Daisuke turned his face downwards to her. She was shivering, and he wanted to do something to comfort her, but she seemed to be thinking of something else at the moment. He waited for her to continue, nothing but the babbling of the stream and the twittering of birds cutting through the silence.

"A long time ago, Elliot, Kyle and I were best friends. We did everything together. Elliot… he was wealthy, and so different from Kyle and I. He had duties; he was next in line to inherit his father's fiefdom. He wasn't around sometimes, and when he was gone, I missed him horribly. I was in love with him before I even knew it. We were only seventeen at the time, so neither of us thought it was serious."

She paused, took a shaky breath, and continued.

"But then one day he… kissed me, and it evolved into something more than friendship. He was the one I loved. I couldn't stand to be away from him. Kyle was still our best friend, of course, but I didn't feel for him the same way I did about Elliot. He was different; more morbid, darker in a way. And then there was war."

She sagged a little in Daisuke's grip and he held her tighter, holding her up. "Freedert, it's all-right… I mean, you don't have to tell me about this if you don't want to," he said.

"No. I have to, Elliot, or else I'll never get a chance. War broke out between us and our neighbors, and my Elliot was called off to fight in his father, the duke's place. I gave him my father's sword to keep him safe. We didn't have much, my mother and I, because we were just normal villagers. But Elliot never cared about that. He took the sword and told me he'd cherish it always. I didn't know then what Kyle would do, how far he would go. He was madly in love with me, I could see that. He was jealous of Elliot and wanted him dead. I could see that also.

"But one day he went to the church and prayed to our village Goddess. He begged her to kill Elliot, to let him die in battle. It was a selfish wish, and he didn't tell me what he had done until later, when they brought back his… his b-b-body," she said. A hand fluttered at her throat, trying to maintain her composure.

"The god… killed him?" Daisuke asked as she sank further into his arms. Was it his imagination or was she becoming smaller, frailer? It seemed like her skin was getting very cold. But she set her mouth in a determined line and continued with the story.

He was furious at Kyle. Who would dare do something so horrible to Freedert? She was perfect. She was beautiful, and enchanting, too. Daisuke loved her with all his heart.

"Elliot's body was struck through with an arrow through the heart. When everyone left him, intending to hold a funeral pyre the very next day, I prayed to our Goddess to take my life and give it to him. I wanted her to take all my time and make it his, so that he could laugh, and smile, and maybe to love someone else." She made a small choking noise. "And I don't remember anything after that. But when I awoke, I knew that _she _was inside me. The Goddess, I mean. When he had awoken, Elliot prayed that all _his _time should be given back to _me! _It sounds stupid, I'll imagine, but I was… so sad… and so happy…"

Her skin was icy. Daisuke rubbed his hands up her arms, trying to get her warm, but it didn't seem to work. She shook her head. "The Goddess wasn't so hard to live with, but she took our village and she made it… she sealed it off from everything else in the world. This place would be given eternal time, but we could never return to what we had been before. We weren't human any longer. I was alone here, with just the Goddess to keep me company. Elliot disappeared. I don't know where he went; Kyle wrote a book, sent it out to the real world, and then took his own life. He couldn't live with what he had done. The name of that book was Ice and Dark."

She turned around and grabbed at Daisuke, pressing her nose into his chest. "I don't want to die!" she cried. "I want to be with Elliot, and I don't want to die alone!"

"Please, don't," Daisuke said to her desperately, and helped her to a kneeling position on the ground, still holding most of her weight. "I love you."She looked very faint. If she had been white before, now she was completely drained of color. It was an eerie effect. He didn't want her to leave. What would he do without Freedert?

"You'll be free soon," she whispered to him. "I'm sorry for doing this."

* * *

He held Freedert for a long time as she cried, until she was silent. He thought she might have fallen asleep, but he was clearly wrong, because at length she murmured, _"He's coming,_" and straightened up. "Help me stand," she asked him pleadingly, and he did. She cast her eyes up the sky, her face filled with sudden determination.

"Miss Freedert? Are you okay?" he asked, rubbing one eye with his index finger. "You should sit down. You don't look well."

"No. I have to be ready for this," she said. "I mustn't sit down."

Daisuke looked up at the sky and saw two things. One was a glimmer of light, nothing more than a sheen against the sun. And the other was a dark figure, approaching at a very fast speed, wings spread out in preparation to land.

The glimmering object struck first. It was a sword, and as it plummeted to earth Freedert raised her arms towards it the sword struck her straight through the chest. But instead of going through and hitting the ground, the sword _merged _with her and they became a swirling mass of light and color.

"Freedert, wait!" He shouted over the maelstrom, but felt himself captured by arms, dragging him up and away from the scene. "Freedert—no! Put me down!" he snarled, trying to wrestle the arms off of him. Too late he realized the person holding him was Dark. "Daisuke!" he hissed. "Leave them alone, we're gonna die if we don't get out of here, you idiot!"

Daisuke continued to fight him the entire way. He wasn't going to go quietly, that was sure. Dark cursed and muttered the whole trip and grabbed him painfully around the upper arms as his wings beat for purchase against the air. "Daisuke! Stop yelling, do you want to get stuck in here?" he yelled.

Suddenly there was a _pop _and Daisuke's ears cleared, and realization kicked in. His thoughts cleared, and the spell was broken like a spiderweb torn down the center. He was on the floor of his bedroom with Dark, completely wrapped up in his wings and arms, and both of them breathing hard with the effort.

"You just _had _to fight me, you anal little thing," Dark quipped. "Wasn't like I chose to come get you."

"Then why'd you do it?" Daisuke said, narrowing his eyes. The floor in front of him was shadowed by the canvas which lay front side up. The entire painting was now completely black, as if it had never been a snowscape at all.

"Jesus Christ, Dai. I just saved your life and that's all you can say? What a lot of thanks I get around here." Obviously Dark thought he was entitled to some serious ass-kissing after this. _So he dragged me out of one painting. Doesn't make up for all the time he spent screwing with my mind. I still don't trust him. _He had not forgotten Dark's words when the thief had come to him through the painting.

"Get _away _from me," he snarled, pushing the thief off and moving to the other side of the room. "And _don't _touch me." Now he remembered everything, and it wasn't good.

In one moment, though, something clicked in Daisuke's head. "The ring… where's that ring?" he asked, looking at his hands. There was no sign of it. Dark gave him a half-smirk, crouching next to him on the floor.

"The stupid artwork sucked it in when it took you with it. Looks like it's gone, doesn't it? What a pity."

"You're a bad liar, Dark," he replied. The thief reeled, only slightly miffed at being caught in the act of lying, and recovered with a sniff, picking up the blackened painting and tossing it into the wastebasket. "It's no good anymore," he said nonchalantly. "I made a promise and I intend to keep it."

Daisuke looked around his bedroom, taking in all the familiar comforts. His family and his home, all in one place…

…and when had Satoshi gotten there? He was sitting on the bed, glaring daggers at Dark and the wastebasket alternatively. breathing hard.

"Satoshi!" Daisuke said. It seemed like years ago he'd seen him last, as if he had gone on a very long trip. The older boy waspanting heavily, trying to get his breath back like he'd just been running. He was wearing his school uniform still.

"You… okay?" he asked, heading over to the bed and leaning over to look Satoshi in the face. Satoshi, meanwhile, was trying very hard to keep breathing, and was rather green in the face.

"Yes, I'm fine. Just tired," Satoshi said inbetween gasping breaths. He clenched his hands.

_The idiot. He put the Chock of Time in that painting before I could tell him otherwise, but he got most of his energy drained. I won't be surprised if he's out of it for a while, or if Krad manages to take over…_

"But what… was that?" Daisuke asked Dark, closing his eyes. "I mean… all that, with the snow world and Freedert? I sort of remember being in there, and something about painting, but other than that, nothing."

_She captured you. Or rather, the art did, because it wanted to keep itself alive. Her spirit was still trapped in the artwork. Elliot's spirit was stuck in that sword. Bring the sword to the painting and… voila, everyone's happy._

"She died. I remember that much."

_Naw, just the artwork. That's our job, Daisuke. We're supposed to kill artworks. They aren't supposed to be alive. And don't you go off on me right now, because you don't have that ring anymore to protect your scrawny ass._

Daisuke's hand fluttered to his finger, and he suddenly ached for that ring like nothing else. God, why had he been so stupid as to touch the artwork? But maybe Dark wasn't as pissed as he had been. Maybe he'd had time to cool down and really think about Daisuke's earlier proposition.

_You get a break for now. I –want- that body. Just don't do anything to make me mad, or I might lose control…_

"How long was I in there?" Daisuke asked Satoshi, who seemed to be recovering slowly. The boy straightened himself and fixed his tie: "Ah, a couple of weeks, give or take," he replied in that fluid voice. He was being very stoic, very aloof and cold, which of course meant that he was feeling more emotional than usual and was doing his best to cover it. At least Daisuke could make the assumption Satoshi had missed him, or he wouldn't be acting like this. He tended to turn into an ice king when he was feeling particularly vulnerable.

_Haha, he's well trained. We had a little talk while you were gone._

Daisuke's eyes widened. "Satoshi, did Dark…what did he do while I was gone?"

Satoshi frowned. "Nothing," he said, his face darkening, and then sat back, no longer looking so pale in the face. Daisuke wanted to press further, but felt that any interrogation would prove fruitless.

Everyone was completely quiet. Satoshi didn't say anything like 'welcome back' or 'hey, I just spent the last two weeks trying to get you out of a painting' or even 'hello'. This was all sharp edges and corners. Walking on eggshells. Things like that. Daisuke sat cross-legged on the comforter and tried to think of something to say.

"I'd better go," Satoshi said eventually, standing. "I will see you at school tomorrow, Daisuke." Each word was a distinct effort. The tension coming from Satoshi was crazy, completely felt in the air.

Very neutral. Daisuke smiled thinly in reply: "Me too. See you later."

Satoshi walked out, just like that, and was gone. Nothing beyond a simple goodbye. Daisuke couldn't help but be interested now: Dark must have said something to Satoshi, or done something god-awful to make the Hikari boy act like this. Satoshi didn't back off for anyone, especially not Dark.

_I didn't do anything. It's Krad. _

"Mm," Daisuke said, like he didn't really believe that. Which he didn't. If Dark had had control of his body for two whole weeks, what other kinds of chaos had he wrecked?

_Well, you're getting a C in Algebra, because I don't know the first thing about math, but…_

"Fuck, mom's gonna _kill _me," Daisuke groaned.

For the rest of the night Daisuke got to work on fixing up his grade. He did some extra assignments to turn in the next day and even managed to finish a project which Dark coldly informed him was due the next day. By the time he tumbled into bed it was almost two AM, but that was all-right because he didn't expect to be doing much the next day anyways.

It was just like old times, when Dark had first manifested and they'd been sort of best enemies: friends, but distantly so, and forced together only because they had to be. Daisuke actually missed those times, before Dark had become so… freakishly obsessed with him, with everything about him, begun to hurt him and find causing pain appealing. Before Satoshi and he had started to get involved. Before he'd had to start stealing more and more dangerous things, sometimes twice in one night.

He missed those days. Now he had someone else to look to. He had someone to care about for the first time in a while. He couldn't be paying attention to himself.

He knew that those memories, especially of what had happened that night at the hotel, would _not _disappear. He wouldn't be able to fix that; and he wondered why it didn't bother him that his other half had held him down and forced sex on him. Why didn't this bother him? Shouldn't it have? Wasn't it something that should have torn him up, made him stop caring, ruined him? But no, he admitted to himself. He had locked his self-pity away the first time it had happened. Just because Dark had restrained him physically that time did not mean he hadn't used words and threats do to the same thing many times before.

He could push it away for now. Maybe it would come full circle and severely fuck up his head in the future, but for now he had to push it away, because anything else would be unacceptable. He had someone to take care of, didn't he? Hell, Satoshi was even more screwed up than he was.

He wanted to help Satoshi learn how to feel, like a normal person should. Sure, he wasn't the best example. He wasn't even good at figuring out what _he _was thinking half the time. But he felt like every time Satoshi was about to say something important, or say what was on his mind, he froze up or distanced himself.

Maybe someday he would be able to talk. And when he could, Daisuke could be there to listen.

* * *

When he awoke in the morning, Dark was blissfully asleep and he was much too tired to consider anything past his own nose for the first two hours of school. During this time he received a freakish amount of compliments on his _amazing acting skills _and how he should probably go into the show business.

_Huh?_

He decided not to press the matter and just shrugged it off. Satoshi wasn't in class, which wasn't all that odd (he had lots of work to do on the side of school) and he didn't get asked to deliver homework this time. As he was walking out of the school with Takeshi, talking about something-or-other, he stopped. He was sure that he saw Satoshi crouched near a bush on the opposite side of campus, far off by the soccer field.

"Um. Is that Satoshi, do you think?" Daisuke asked Takeshi reluctantly. He couldn't see that far very well.

Takeshi waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "Hmm, could be. Are you gonna jump him or something?"

"No!" Daisuke said, mortified. And then slyly added: "Not on school campus, at least."

Takeshi snickered. "You're growing up, kid," he said, as if he were forty years old and not fifteen. He thumped Daisuke on the back. "Yeah, it's him. I can tell Hiwatari from a few miles off. See you later, and take care of yourself."

Maybe Takeshi wasn't as dense as he appeared.

Daisuke split off from Takeshi and made his way across the field, praying that Satoshi wouldn't get up and leave. But the boy just watched him approach with detached interest, hands braced against the grass as the girls kicked the ball around behind them, cheering and giggling.

He came to stand at Satoshi's left side, plopping down in the grass. "Hey," he greeted, looking over his shoulder at the group of soccer players converging at center-field. "How're you?" he figured this was a very simple way to start the conversation.

"I'm… good," Satoshi replied, his voice guarded. "And… you?"

"I'm fine. Dark's asleep, and after last night, I guess he will be for a while. What about Krad?"

Satoshi let out a breath as soon as Dark's name was mentioned, and his look of relief only grew as the sentence went on. But his face was sealed up again as soon as Daisuke finished speaking.

"I missed you… so fucking much. I didn't think you'd make it out of that painting alive, Daisuke. How could you be so stupid and go touch it like that? I thought you'd _died!_" he ranted.

"I'm okay, thanks to you. That's over with," Daisuke insisted. "Freedert's sealed away forever. I won't be touching things in museums again anytime soon, though."

"It was a church."

"Oh, right. My memory's still a little fuzzy."

"Don't do it again. I might not be able to get you out, and then I don't know what I'll do. I don't like feeling… like this."

"Like what, Satoshi?"

"Like you can _control me. _If you had died... You could hurt me badly, and I wouldn't be able to close myself up again. I don't know what I'd do." He shrugged. "Nevermind, I don't want to say anything else. Just forget I said that."

Another pause. "We have a job tonight, don't we?" Daisuke didn't want to press what he'd already managed to build with Satoshi. The kid was finally opening up to him, a little, and he didn't want to screw things up so soon.

"That's what the note said. Tonight at ten."

"I'll be a zombie in the morning. I hate late nights," Daisuke mused, stretching out in the grass next to Satoshi.

"You say that so calmly," Satoshi said flatly.

"Well, it's true, I do. Especially the nights you're there. Dark always rants for about an hour before he'll let me go to sleep."

"Hmmm." Satoshi closed his eyes, flat on his back, arms behind his head.

"This is going to sound odd, but… I think that I… um…"

"You don't have to say it. I know."

"…You do?" Daisuke looked over at him, surprised.

"Yeah." Their shoulders were touching, barely, and Daisuke could feel a kind of hum, the surreptitious knowledge that someone's skin was touching against his own. It was a pleasant, touchy-feely kind of vibe.

He picked up Daisuke's right hand with his left and brought it close to his face, inspecting the nails, the etchings of lines down the palm. Daisuke didn't find it odd, but merely shifted so Satoshi could look at it more easily.

"Your hands are… surprisingly clean," he said with a small smile. "Surprising, I mean, with all the tripping you seem to do."

"I'm just clumsy, I guess."

"I don't mind." Satoshi's smile got a little wider, just a tiny bit, as he lowered Daisuke's hand.

Daisuke sighed happily. "You think those soccer girls are going to find us?"

"We're just lying here. They won't care."

"I wish we didn't have to hide this," Daisuke said seriously. "My parents don't even know. Takeshi knows, but he doesn't care, I don't think. But my parents? They might never find out that I… am… like this."

"I think they'll understand. I mean, I'm pretty irresistible." He lowered his voice about half an octave and for a second he sounded _just like Dark. _Daisuke's mouth fell open slightly as he stared at him. "My God, you just cracked a joke."

"There's lots about me you don't know."

"When will I get to learn it?"

"Someday. Not now. I don't want to talk about things like that now."

Daisuke's throat clenched up at those words. Something about them hit a note, made him think about himself for once. And Satoshi, too. What would happen to them when they grew up? They would probably be forced to move, go to college, live lives of their very own. They would have to go out into the world. It wouldn't always be fun and games, Dark and Krad, good versus evil. Eventually they would have to give up these things and go into the real world as full adults.

But how could he be a full adult when he only felt like half a person?

"Hey, Satoshi. I dunno, maybe I'm crazy or something, but do you feel a little like… you're on the edge of a cliff?"

"What, metaphorically speaking?"

"No. Just that…bad things are heading our way. Trouble's coming. That sort of thing."

"That's a good way to describe it. I know what you mean."

"What do you think is gonna happen?" Daisuke wondered aloud, grasping Satoshi's hand tighter.

Someday they would have to figure out their futures, and everything would be in the past. This would all just be a distant memory, a vague remembrance of a sunny afternoon when two teenagers lay in the grass behind a bush while the soccer team scored behind them, their voices drifting up to the blue, bright sky. Would he look back on this and think that this was the worst time in his life, or the best? What would his future bring? Would he always be a part of Dark, and would Dark overtake him, as he had done to all of Daisuke's descendants? It was these things that he worried about now.

"I'm not sure, Dai. But I think we'll manage."

And that was what he needed to hear most of all.


	13. What Tomorrow Brings

Aww, my very last chapter. Sniffle, sniffle.

Daisuke got less awkward and a bit smoother with age. Huzzah!

* * *

"Fuck! I'm sorry, really, I am. I can't go five feet without doing something like this." The red-haired man smiled wistfully as he crouched, picking up the menus he'd knocked out of the waitress' hands.

She nodded in return, spellbound by him. There wasn't a way to describe him, but he was extremely handsome, and not a little charming in manner. Once again his red eyes flashed at her as he handed her the pile of menus, neatly stacked. "Sorry again," he murmured, one hand rising to his throat to fix his tie.

"No, no, it's my fault, sir," she said with a modest lowering of her head. "Don't worry about it, please. And if there's anything I can get you, my name's Kaoru."

He grinned. "All-right, Kaoru. I'll remember that." And waltzed his way out of sight. The waitress could only sigh after him, wondering if she'd seen a god.

But then Daisuke tended to have that effect on people.

This was one of those fancy restaurants where all the waiters were in white and black and the menus were hand-calligraphied, and the tables were set with immaculate cloths. Where there were three kinds of forks and more than enough fantastic wine to make you want to get drunk as hell, but one _never _got drunk in a restaurant like this because it just didn't happen.

The hostess blushed as he approached, another usual response to Daisuke's proximity. "Hello," he greeted politely. "Any chance that a member of the Niwa party has arrived? Reservation for two?" he asked her.

"Oh! Um," she said, looking down at her book. "Yes, right over there, sir." She pointed to the side of the room.

This was Satoshi's kind of place. And sure enough, there he was, reading the menu, head tilted to the side _just so_ as if he were posing for some kind of modeling campaign. His eyes were downcast and he was wearing those spectacles which he didn't actually need, perched on the edge of his nose. Daisuke had seen him often enough, every day for quite some time, but no matter how many times he caught sight of Satoshi looking so relaxed he never quite managed to catch his breath.

He came up behind the table, suddenly inspired, and whisked the menu straight out of Satoshi's hands, head lowered so as to be right over the man's shoulder. Satoshi jumped visibly in his seat: "Jesus! I _hate _it when you do that. Where've you been?" he asked, snapping his reading spectacles smartly into place and sliding them into his shirt pocket as he leaned back into his chair.

"You got a table without me," Daisuke accused teasingly, sliding into the other side of the table and leaning over the center. "Happy birthday, by the way."

"Ngh, don't remind me," Satoshi said, putting a hand over his eyes. "And besides, you were late. By twenty minutes."

"We can't all be perfect like you."

Banter like this was rather common between them. It was just how they seemed to work best together.

"Can't believe it's been ten years since all of that stuff ended, anyways," Daisuke added. "It doesn't seem that long, when you think about it."

"Again, don't remind me. I'm glad all that's done with," Satoshi replied. The waitress came over; obviously Kaoru had pulled some strings with the other waitstaff and was now getting the distinct pleasure of serving them. As soon as she walked away with their order she whisked off to the opposite side of the room, where several of the other female waiters were pressed against the wall in a gaggle. Immediately they all looked over towards the couple of absolutely _beautiful _men and began giggling like hormonal fangirls.

"So. How's it feel to be twenty four?" Daisuke asked when she was gone. "Enjoy it, 'cause it'll be gone tomorrow. Get wasted or something. Have fun, for once."

"Yeah, well," Satoshi said, tone dismal. "It's not all that great. Just makes me think. Call me morbid, but I always expected to be dead before I got to be this old."

Their drinks came. Kaoru sped off as soon as the wine was on the table. Daisuke picked up his glass, raised it in a toast. "To not being dead," he announced, before they knocked the rims together and drank. "And to having a damn good life on top of that," he added.

"I don't think 'damn good' is the word for med school," Satoshi said. "But whatever floats. At least I'll be making money. _You _don't have to deal with five-hour nights, anyways."

"Yeah, 'cause art school is for the freaks and losers," Daisuke said with a grin.

"Right. Of which you are both," Satoshi said, hand moving to Daisuke's under the table.

"Naturally."

The food was good. The wine was good. The music was fantastic. What else could Satoshi want for his birthday, Daisuke wondered? Well, there was always the dessert, but that came later and he was definitely in the mood. Hell, he wasn't afraid to admit that he was in love with the man. They were crazy for each other, whether it was right or not. He got to missing Satoshi when the man was in school, and sometimes the hole was so great all he could do was sit by and paint. The entire study in their shared house was covered with paintings of various shapes and sizes. When a local collector had come by and shown interest in his art, offering to buy what he could churn out if it was good, Daisuke had started receiving commissions by the handful, to his surprise.

He'd always liked computers, so it was only natural that he combined the two and went in for graphic design. He and Satoshi would be graduating soon and then they would be—gasp—actually released into the world. Now _there _was a scary thought.

"Dai, you okay?" He asked, flicking at the redhead's chin. Daisuke blinked once: "Yeah, just thinking," he said, looking down to the bill under his hands and sliding his credit card in before setting it aside for the waitress to pick up.

"I'll pay," Satoshi protested.

"No. It's your birthday. I'm not even gonna hear it," Daisuke said, shaking his head. Sure, Satoshi's family had money, and he was well off after the recent death of his foster father. But that was no reason for him to buy _everything. _Daisuke liked having the knowledge that he could do something for Satoshi, make him happy in some small way, even if it was buying a nice dinner once in a while or something like that.

Kaoru came and picked up the check, her eyes glued to the two men the entire time she did so. "Thank you so much for coming!" she piped up enthusiastically before turning away to go swipe the credit card. Satoshi took a moment to peer at her retreating figure before turning back to Daisuke. "Did you drive or take a cab?"

"I drove," Daisuke replied. "I was in the mood. I'll drive back. You've been working too hard lately. You need to take a break once in a while, yeah?" he finished off the last of his wine and set down the empty glass as the waitress returned their check and card. "And have a _wonderful night,_" she gushed before backing off.

Daisuke came round to Satoshi's side of the table, handed him his jacket off the back of his chair as Satoshi stood and rolled down the cuffs on his shirt. Kaoru was still staring from a safe distance, and as Satoshi finished with his cuff Daisuke threw one arm around Satoshi's waist and guided him out the front door, bodies side by side.

"What was _that?_ You're usually anti-touch in public," Satoshi admonished when they were outside.

"She was practically drooling on herself. I was just providing the masses with what they demand." Daisuke gave a dramatic sigh.

"So I noticed. Hmm."

"It's 'cause you're sex on wheels, and she was _jealous. _I'm the luckiest bastard alive, you know that?" They had come to the parking lot and Daisuke fished out his keys from his pocket. The drive home was filled with restaurant critique, school-related chatter, and other smalltalk. But Daisuke was secretly excited. He'd sworn to himself that this year's gift would be the best one ever. Or gifts, rather, since he'd picked out three.

* * *

They pulled up to the house, closing the garage door with a flick of the button. The gift itself was sitting underneath the back seat, proof of the reason why Daisuke had been twenty minutes late to dinner. Daisuke didn't know how to wrap at all, being a guy, and so the gift was wrapped in tissue paper and a decorative bag.

Daisuke climbed into the back seat and pulled out the bag.

"Yeah, it's for you," Daisuke said in reply to his questioning look, shoving his hands into his pockets. "Go ahead. Hope you like it."

Satoshi leaned forward, took the bag with three parcels in it and unwrapped the first, the present coming to light beneath slim fingers, one of the parts of Satoshi's anatomy that Daisuke happened to like best. The nails were always perfectly filed, hands immaculately clean, no trace of dirt anywhere. But then he was training to be a surgeon. That required clean hands.

"Hmm, a watch?" Satoshi asked, looking down at the gold watch resting inside its case. Daisuke nodded: "Yeah, that one you've been carrying around for six years looks like it's ready to snap in half. And it leaks when you put it in water."

"True. I've been meaning to get another. This is great," he said with a truly happy grin, moving onto the second package. This one was a hardcover copy of Arthur Conan Doyle's _Sherlock Holmes _collection, unabridged. Satoshi had been into foreign literature lately and Daisuke knew he'd been just dying to find books where he could. At this the grin only got wider. Daisuke knew he had chosen well. "And it's in English still. You really went all-out, didn't you?"

"Yeah, well. The cashier said the Japanese version was choppy."

And then the third present.

Satoshi's hands skimmed over the tiny jewelry box, wondering what the hell kind of jewelry it was. Not a ring, because he never wore rings, and Daisuke had already gotten him a watch…

He flipped it open. Inside was a thin silver chain, onto which was strung two feathers: one white and one black. They hadn't become curled or dirty with age, but were still in the unsoiled state Daisuke had found them in, ten years ago.

"…Are these what I think they are?" Satoshi asked, quieting.

"Yeah. One from each."

He looked up at Daisuke, eyes wide. "But where? Where'd you find them?"

"The black one was no problem. I used to find 'em in my bed after Dark had gone on a job. The white one I found on my windowsill the morning after you stayed over that one night. Remember when you collapsed outside school and I… uh, took you to my house?" Daisuke was getting a faint color to his cheeks, just by spouting the memory. Satoshi nodded: "Yeah, I remember. Your mom was crazy."

"Mhm." Daisuke grinned. "That's mom."

Ever since Dark had disappeared, Emiko had calmed down. Kosuke had stopped traveling and gotten a job as a research scientist, something he'd been doing before he'd started dealing in magical artifacts and was actually quite good at. Life at Daisuke's house had been peaceful. He knew that growing up had been hard for Satoshi without real parents or siblings, and had spent the last decade trying to be there as much as possible for him. He _was _Satoshi's family.

Satoshi's eyes lowered. "God, Daisuke. This is… great. This is the best thing I could have asked for." He fastened the chain around his neck easily, looking down at it like it was priceless instead of a couple of feathers that might have come from any bird. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"Happy birthday, princess," Daisuke said, just because he knew it hit a button when he used girly pet names like that. And he was right. Satoshi's eyes narrowed and he wrapped Daisuke up in a tight hug, moving over the stick and halfway into the back seat to do so. "Told you not to call me that," he said against the side of the redhead's face. "Makes me sound like a woman."

Nobody could ever mistake Satoshi for a girl. To Daisuke it happened more often, because as he had grown he had somehow avoided gaining much weight. He was slender and lithe, with stark red hair that was getting to be below his ears now and was spiky, just like his father's had been. He'd also inherited his mother's small, sensual mouth and her big eyes, making him look even prettier than most girls at his college.

"I just… love you. So much," Satoshi said, hand curling up to touch Daisuke's hair. "Everything. About you. I don't deserve this."

"If I didn't know better, I'd think you were trying to hit me up," Daisuke asked mysteriously.

"Who, me?" Satoshi replied, grabbing him by the tie and grinning like a wolf. "Daisuke, Daisuke, Daisuke. Would I ever do something so lewd and inappropriate?"

"Maybe," Daisuke said, a hint of that old shyness creeping into his voice, but just for a second. "But it's all-right with me. I can have bragging rights," he said, stretching out lengthwise in the backseat.

"Bragging rights?" Satoshi asked, one eyebrow raising in that demure way.

"Yeah. I was seduced by Satoshi Hiwatari for ten years straight."

"Hmm," Satoshi said, and kissed him, his lips molding so easily to Daisuke's own, tongues sliding and teeth grazing. Utterly erotic and perfect to an art over the years; by now sex was nothing new between them. It was the foreplay which made it great, the things leading up to making love which seemed to make life so interesting.

He wasn't shy about touching Satoshi's hair anymore, which was the best thing. His hands slipped through it like it was water as their mouths joined. It was still the same length it had been when he was younger, because Satoshi never deviated from a strict pattern of cutting it. They were odd that way. Who would have thought a _Niwa _could become an artist, or a _Hikari _a doctor? Both were contradictions.

As Satoshi pressed him down onto the seats, the tie was suspiciously loose, and Daisuke flicked it off and onto the floor in one motion. Satoshi's knee was pressed inbetween Daisuke's legs for stability as they worked on getting each other's clothes off as quickly as possible, mouths breaking apart for the moment.

"Satoshi, we're in the _car,_" he said in disbelief.

"Don't care. Want you," he said in a curt voice, popping the release to let the backs of the seats fold down. More space now.

"Damnit, why do people...have to wear… clothes…" Daisuke said, fiddling with Satoshi's pants in an almost angry determination. Satoshi grinned. "And I thought you could open anything, _kaitou Dark._" Daisuke himself was in nothing but boxers now, and as the clasp finally—finally came undone, Satoshi's pants slid to pool around his ankles.

"I have to do things for myself now," Daisuke said with a lifting of his eyebrows, and then pulled Satoshi over until they were side by side on the seats, kissing with renewed fervor. Satoshi nudged his knees apart. Daisuke's eyes widened slightly: "Wait, I just remembered I forgot to lock the front door when I left…" he said, rising his back off the bed and fully preparing to get off and go lock it.

Satoshi's hand reached out and pressed Daisuke's wrists down on the bed, effectively locking him in place. Satoshi smiled. "It's _my _birthday, and I say damn the door. You're not leaving now." But when he caught sight of Daisuke's eyes, he immediately stopped holding onto Daisuke's wrists. The man was breathing hard, pupils dilated and his entire body rigid.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Dai. I forgot," Satoshi apologized, trying to snap Daisuke out of his mood. When he got like this, all tense and withdrawn, Satoshi knew he was remembering Dark and the times the phantom thief had raped him, or forced him down while he did other things. All he could do was be patient.

Daisuke had learned to control the panic attacks through the years, though they still came once in a while. Satoshi could have kicked himself. _Why _did he have to be so stupid and ruin everything?

"No, it's fine," Daisuke said slowly, pulling himself out of the cloud of fear. "Just… you know how it is."

"Yeah. You want something to drink?"

"Nah, I'm good," Daisuke said, and ran his hands down the sides of Satoshi's body absentmindedly. Satoshi looked at him with concern, but since Daisuke seemed to have recovered quickly, he figured this was one of the lesser-scale panic attacks and that Daisuke would be all-right for the moment. "If anything's wrong, I'll stop," he assured him.

"You won't hurt me. I know that," Daisuke said. It was what Satoshi had promised the first time, and told him every time they made love after that. It was what he whispered in his ear just before they did anything together. It was a promise, and a lifeline. To Daisuke it was like a wall separating Satoshi from Dark in his mind.

"No, I won't," Satoshi said, as Daisuke wriggled out of his boxers and they, too, dropped to the car floor. Satoshi's hand came up and brushed against his cheek softly; Daisuke sighed. The man was like a balm for him, healing all the oldest wounds that he'd never even known had been there.

When Satoshi had suggested he go to therapy for the first time, he'd been baffled. Why would he need therapy? But then Satoshi had pointed out that there were nights when Daisuke woke up screaming, or went into a panic so large that he didn't recognize people. Once Daisuke had blanked in the middle of grocery shopping and nearly collapsed, for no reason at all.

But he was afraid. He didn't want to admit that things like that had happened to him from the time he was fourteen until almost his fifteenth birthday. Rape was something that happened to women and weak girls, not… not _men. _Not him. He didn't need therapy. He was healing with time, becoming better as long as he stayed with Satoshi. Satoshi was like a balm on his soul, mending up all the wounded parts and making him whole again as he did the same to the other man.

Satoshi's teeth grazed over his neck and then down to his collarbone, pressing a kiss there before moving downward slowly, hands a blur as they roamed over his body. _I'm safe now. I don't have to worry about anything—I'm a fucking adult, I shouldn't still be scared of Dark when he's been gone for ten years! _Daisuke said to himself in his mind. This was Satoshi's birthday. He couldn't afford to get lost in memories tonight.

When Daisuke found Satoshi's erection, sliding his palm over the head before deepening his grasp, Satoshi's back arched up off the seat in a silent scream. He wasn't uncomfortable, though his head pressed against the car door as he tried to find a better position, tried to both avoid and move into the pleasure which was circulating around his hips.

With a smile, Daisuke knew he'd found the right spot and began rubbing _right there _as Satoshi's breathing turned into a real effort and not just a natural process, the man twisting under him. "Hmm, there we go," Daisuke said absently. Satoshi, in reply, grabbed a lock of Daisuke's hair and pulled him down to ravish him with another kiss.

By now he knew that the soft skin just before Satoshi's opening was the right spot to win him over completely. His fingers slipped past his shaft and further down, brushing the area lightly. Satoshi's head hit back against the seat and he sucked in breath: "God! Daisuke!"

Daisuke gave a mischevious grin and didn't let up in his ministrations as the older man was reduced to breathy words and half-formed sentences. He could tell by now when Satoshi was close to release, after ten years of this, and they were hardly shy around each other. Though their schedules were packed they were used to having sex whenever it was possible, which hadn't been very often lately.

_I'm disgusting. I don't deserve his love. _

He told that voice to go away, the thought jerking into his mind as Satoshi spilled onto him, making a loud cry that Daisuke never heard otherwise. He was beautiful when he did this. Satoshi was a quiet man, and hardly ever raised his voice above an almost-whisper. Daisuke relished the noise and cut it off with another kiss as he smothered their bodies together, side by side.

"I'm going to fucking _kill _you if you don't have—" Satoshi began, but Daisuke laughed. "Yeah, yeah. Wait a second."

He reached over the center console and into the passenger seat, popping the glove compartment and whisking out the small blue container. The first few times he'd lubricated Satoshi, he'd found the process awkward and embarrassing, but now he did it with practiced ease and a smile on his face.

It had taken a long time for Satoshi to break him of the idea that making love was supposed to be enjoyable, not searing or painful. And it had taken even longer to get Daisuke to stop spooking when Satoshi grabbed him suddenly, or tried something new, or brought up Dark at all.

But here he was, a successful, upstanding young man with a promising future.

…Having sex in the back of a car. Whoo.

He finished covering Satoshi and withdrew his hands: the man still had a hard-on. Daisuke was almost jealous of his stamina; it was crazy. But then that was Satoshi, perfect in every way. Daisuke could have died from happiness as Satoshi rolled them over so he was on top, his face covered in a thin sheen of sweat and exertion. Daisuke himself was panting, to his surprise, whether in anticipation or anxiousness he didn't know.

One finger. Two. Three. How often did Satoshi do this for him, slip those long fingers inside him as a prequel to what came afterwards? So often it was scary, and he never stopped feeling the same electric pleasure each time. But more than that there was a bone-deep sense of warmth and _completeness _that came from knowing everything about Satoshi and having the other man know the same. Favorite color, favorite drink, car, place in Tokyo, restaurant, even type of bottled water. All these little details built up over the years until he and Satoshi might as well have shared the same brain.

They were so in love it was almost scary that they hadn't gotten tired of each other yet. Sure, they had fights, but that was once in a while and the shouting matches usually didn't last too long. Both of them were flexible. Traumatized, broken shrink cases, maybe. But definitely dynamic when it came to relationships.

The blunt pressure between his legs built as Satoshi pressed into him, slow and smooth. As always there was discomfort for the first second or two, but it was followed by a thrum so deep and mind-boggling that it was a miracle he didn't come right there. But he wanted this to last, wanted to make it special, so he held back as long as he could.

He didn't count how many times Satoshi moved into him, hitting his prostate in just the right way every time. Satoshi knew him inside and out. They just _fit _together. Daisuke couldn't imagine anyone else, not Riku or Risa or anyone else he might have met, being there for him but Satoshi. The idea itself was insane.

Daisuke shifted and managed Satoshi's name as he came, lost in his own personal utopia. Satoshi wasn't far behind, and for a few moments they lay there wrapped up and not needing to speak. Just lost in each other. With Dark it had never been at all like this: with Dark everything had been cold and lonely and painful. Night and Day, literally.

He felt all his insecurities burn away under Satoshi's half-lidded eyes, the blue striking him as amazing once again. No matter how many times he saw them he always wondered how anyone could have eyes like that: bluish grey, as constantly changing as the ocean itself. And that mouth—God! Nobody had a mouth like that. Especially when it was covering his, tongue dipping through his parted lips to meet with his own.

Eventually they had to pull apart. The clock read eleven-twenty, which meant that they'd been there for a little over an hour. Nobody would care. They didn't have work in the morning, and would probably end up doing something leisurely anyways, so for now they were content to stay there.

"Ten years," Satoshi said in disbelief, voice hazy. "Ten… years. Do you miss him?"

"No," Daisuke said firmly, though the spike of hatred he felt for Dark was mulled by his own sex-drowsy voice. "I mean, I'm glad he disappeared. Krad too. We needed to have our own lives. We were like little kids playing dress-up phantom thief, you know?"

"I know," Satoshi said. "And I'm glad he's gone. I hated not being able to keep you away from him or anything."

"Yeah. But I always wondered… if maybe he got a body, like he wanted, in the end."

"Maybe. Guess we'll never know," Satoshi said, and kissed him once on the forehead. "We'd probably better get inside."

"My car is trashed. There's cum all over the seat."

"So take it to the cleaners."

"How embarrassing. Think they'll charge extra?"

"Hmm. Maybe." Satoshi beamed, throwing an arm over Daisuke as Daisuke practically dragged him out of the car. Together, somehow, they made it to the bed, clothing in tow, and in a matter of seconds were fast asleep, the radio in the room softly blaring the local classical station just like Satoshi had left it earlier in the day. But neither of them had the energy to bother with turning it off.

* * *

In the morning Daisuke found the bed empty, the blankets mussed, and as he walked to the bathroom, yawning, he pulled on his boxers from the previous night, not really caring about hygiene at the moment. He went into the bathroom, scratching his crotch absently as he looked in: nope, no Satoshi.

Downstairs was no different. He still reeked of sex, he was sure, but that was all-right because in all probability Satoshi would too. He found the man in the kitchen, bent over the coffee machine and changing the filter. A steaming pot was on the counter next to him.

"Pour me one. I'm half dead," Daisuke said, coming over behind him. "Morning, love." He pressed a kiss to Satoshi's cheek as the older man returned the greeting with a smirk, complying and handing him a cup as they sat at the meager table.

It took a few moments to settle in, but Daisuke realized that Satoshi was dressed in a pair of shorts and a sleeveless shirt, some high-end running shoes strapped onto his feet. His glasses were missing, as they always were before he went running. Satoshi lifted his brows: "Coming with me, Dai?"

"You're kidding me," Daisuke said, feeling like he'd been hit by a train. "Today?"

"Sure. You need the exercise."

"I _had _my exercise last night." Satoshi laughed at that, and coffee cup still in hand went over to the bedroom door. A few moments later he came back with a pair of Daisuke's gym clothes, throwing them at him and leaving the redhead to drag them on with a series of complaints and whining. Daisuke leaned back in the chair, his head going over the backside as Satoshi laced up his shoes for him, barely cognizant enough yet to sit up straight, much less go running.

"Coffee'll kick in soon. Come _on, _you lazy-ass."

"Fine," Daisuke surrendered, moving to the sink to wash his cup out.

He'd been a strong runner all throughout high-school, taking up the sport after Dark and Krad had disappeared and finding that athletics took up the time previously occupied with stealing things. So when Satoshi went jogging he had no trouble keeping up.

They'd been running for about half an hour when they decided on a break, having come through the center of a park as they took a seat. That was the beauty of Tokyo: there was plenty of space to run in, but too many people in the urban areas. On the outskirts one found more places that were breathable. This was Satoshi's favorite park of all, with a statue of some important figure planted in the center of the square.

Nearby was an elementary school, and since it was a Thursday, recess was in session. The fence where the kids were playing was only a few feet off from Daisuke as they sat there on the park bench, trying to catch their breath. Daisuke watched the children flitting about, laughing and giggling as they played tag or cops and robbers. Such an easy age. He remembered being that little.

A red ball bounced over the chain-link fence and into the nearby field, stopping when it glanced against a tree. Daisuke watched its slow progress as it stopped moving, and was surprised to hear a small whoop of joy. One of the children hooked two feet in the fence and clambered up it as nimbly as a cat, throwing themselves gracefully over the other side and landing on their feet, snatching up the ball.

He made a choked sort of noise as the kid looked behind him, making sure nobody had seen him.

_Dark! It's Dark!_

The kid couldn't have been older than nine, with glossy ashen hair and enormous dark eyes. He was the spitting image of the thief, or what the thief must have looked like if he were ever that young. Daisuke only snatched up Satoshi's shoulder and shook him violently, pointing after the kid. "Satoshi! Look! It's him!"

The kid had been spotted. There was another boy pressed against the fence, a distinctive sneer on his face. This one was a blonde, with steely eyes and a fair complexion. He obviously wasn't Japanese by the look of him, so Daisuke couldn't have seen him before in his life, but something about him was familiar…

…_And Krad…?_

Satoshi's open-mouthed awe matched his now. They stared after the boys as "Dark" snatched up the ball and ran back to the fence, shimmying up and over it again as if it were nothing. They were sitting only a couple of feet away from the fence itself, so he had to run past them in order to get to it, and they got a good look at his face in the process. Yes, it was Dark, with a few small details changed.

"Derek, I'm gonna tell on yo-ou," the blonde sang, nose wrinkling.

Derek hugged the ball. "Fine, go ahead. See if I care, stupid. She'll just tell you to shut up and then everyone'll know Brad's nothing but a tattletale."

"Nuh-uh! Not if I tell her everything!"

"Don't have any proof!" the kid replied, sticking out his tongue. "So there."

The blonde kid, Brad,was caught there. "Fine. But you have to share it. That's the only one left. I'm stronger'n you, so if you don't, I'll just _take _it from you!"

"Okay, okay. Jeez." After that nothing could be heard but the faint undercurrent of their voices as they receded into the crowd of rushing children.

Daisuke turned to Satoshi. "That. That was..."

Satoshi shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe it was just coincidence…"

"Derek? Brad?" Daisuke asked. "Doesn't that sound suspiciously like...?"

"I don't know, Daisuke. We probably never will. Let's just go, okay?"

Daisuke noticed the pained expression in Satoshi's eyes for the first time. _He really doesn't want to know? He doesn't want to find out if they really are Dark and Krad? _

"Daisuke, if that was Krad back there, I don't care. I've got you now. This is my life. _You're _my life now. Let's put all that in the past where it belongs, okay?"

Daisuke nodded and rose, just wanting to be out of there. He wanted to have his thoughts to himself for once.

If that was Dark, then maybe it was fate that he see what the thief had become. He was glad that he'd seen the kid, for however short of a time, because to him it meant something. It was like an omen had appeared and kicked him in the face, making him realize what he'd never been able to for the last ten years.

_I am by myself now. Dark is gone, forever._

He felt himself filling with a sense of relief, realization so deep that it made him want to laugh out loud. Dark was gone! Dark was really never coming back. Sure, he sometimes missed the thief, or even longed for him. He missed the old days once in a while when he and Satoshi had been enemies, when every night was about danger and adrenaline rushes. But all of that was in the past now, and it always would be.

This was what he'd been waiting to find out for the last decade of his life. This was the wondering that had put a damper on his hopes, the fear that had kept him from doing anything with his life for half of his highschool career.

As his blood pulsed through his veins, keeping his legs in, his entire body in motion, he looked over to Satoshi. Side by side they finished the run, went into their own home, the life they had built together. And the whole time only one thought came to mind and circled over and over, a dove landing after the flood.

_I am whole._


End file.
